Honoring Barry Bonds

Lost, somewhat, in the NCLS and World Series was the Giants' having Barry Bonds throw out the first pitch and get publicly feted in San Francisco. True, most fans didn't see the heroes of years past play -- Hall of Famers named Marichal, McCovey, Cepeda and, yes, Mays. And, true, Barry is the best that they've had since then. All fans, naturally, remember him. His feats and prickliness were indelible.

So was his baggage, which continues to this day.

Was he worthy of this honor?

I don't think so. Put differently, if he was worthy of this, then most of the comic-book like steroid era heroes should be first-ballot locks for the Hall of Fame. Instead, the best pitcher (Roger Clemens) and hitter (Bonds) continue to be mired in legal problems. The most prodigious home run hitters not named Bonds won't make the Hall of Fame (at least for a while) -- Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. While the latter is trying to rehabilitate himself as the Cards' hitting coach, it remains to be seen whether this relatively humble contribution to the furthering of MLB and the Cards will be seen as a cleanser of past sins. One of the best hitters of that era -- Rafael Palmeiro, also won't make the Hall for a while and seems to be lingering in obscurity, his performance before the Congressional indelible for its insolence and its mendacity.

And Barry Bonds? Honored like a returning hero?

Is that the best the San Francisco franchise could do?

Really?

Would the MLBPA Have Agreed to Locker Searches?

Probably not, but so far the NFLPA has been silent on Texans' owner's Bob McNair's ordered search of players' lockers for banned substances. McNair has some reason to be cautious, as his last two first-round picks served four-game suspensions for using PEDs. He's protecting his investment.

Would the MLBPA, the best organized and run union in the world, have agreed to that, though? Even after the bloody nose they took in the court of public opinion regarding baseball players' use of PEDs, thus causing significant hitting inflation over the course of the past 15 seasons, at least up until 2 seasons ago?

Memo from the World Series: The Best Way to Win a World Championship is. . .

To just go out there and take it.

Which is precisely what the San Francisco Giants are doing, showing a can-do attitude and a spirit that says, "we're going all the way." They showed that spirit in the NLDS and the NLCS, and they've built upon that momentum to give themselves a huge advantage in the World Series. They were 9-41 with runners in scoring position against the Phillies in the NLCS, and they were 9-17 with runners in scoring position last night.

And their pitching is tremendous. The Braves of some 60+ years ago had a slogan, "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain." The Giants of 2010 could have a similar slogan -- "Lincecum and Cain and then pray for rain," but they can up the ante big-time on those Braves' teams, because it's Lincecum and Cain and then more of the same -- Sanchez and Bumgardner, to be exact. Good pitching, indeed, is trumping good hitting the way scissors beats paper.

Easily.

Giants' skipper Bruce Bochy remains the "wizard del tutto wizards" by mixing and matching hitters and position players, and the Giants' pitching is second to none. The Giants' hurlers have seized the moment, as have the Giants' hitters.

Just by going out there and taking it.

Concussions: NFL Players Cannot Have Their Cake and Eat It Too -- Are the League and the Sport En Route to Becoming Obsolete?

NFL players have blanched at current league directives on head-to-head hits. A recent article in Sports Illustrated contains all of the old gladiator cliches, some macho, others misogynistic, but the bottom line from many players is that it's tackle football, it's a collision sport, people like the violence, it's a tough game, this is what sells tickets, etc. In the most recent edition of that magazine, current players expressed no concern about concussions and their lifelong effects.

Which is interesting, because all they need to do is visit with alumni of the NFL and see prima facie evidence of the long-term effects of headbanging (and spine-knocking, for that matter). The pronounced effects are there, so much so that former players like Mike Ditka have lobbied endlessly for increased medical and pension benefits for retirees, who, if they don't have trouble walking, have trouble thinking and functioning -- or at least many of them.

And why is that? Because of all of the hits to the head that the current players seemingly pooh-pooh (if for no other reason then a) they're defending their livelihood or b) they're in denial, as they don't want to admit that a life's worth of head-banging activity couldn't possibly cause long-term damage, because that, of course, only happens to someone else). So, on the one hand, you have the current players who decry a change in the enforcement of the rules and, on the other hand, a whole host of data (empirical evidence) and retirees (anectdotal evidence) that suggests that the short-term reforms could help alleviate the long-term problems that the retirees have. That said, the NFL's reforms cannot undo the lifetime of hits to the head that players incurred leading up to their NFL careers.

So, that brings us back full circle. Permit hits to the head (with some fines) and create more long-term damage. Don't permit them, and dilute the attractive violence of the game and fundamentally change the game. Permit them, and create more significant longer-term damage that could and should cost the league more money in pension and healthcare benefits and create a big class of former players whose average mortality rate is worse than the national average and whose future mental health is in jeopardy. (Note: that could happen, anyway, because of a lifetime's worth of hits that each player has suffered). Prohibit them, and reduce, perhaps, the amount of future, quality-of-life threatening illnesses of retired players.

This is a very serious problem. Players are faster and bigger. Training methods are more sophisticated. Research is more detailed about the long-term effects of the game. Those who run it had better take a long, hard look at the rules, equipment and training methods before -- in a hurry -- football becomes, yes, obsolete. I'm reading a book called The Innovator's Dilemma, which focuses on companies that made bad decisions that caused them to become irrelevant at a time when they were on top (many of them were in the high tech industry). That's an interesting premise, isn't it?

Remember, decades ago boxing and horse racing were at the top of spectator sports (as were the major sports). Boxing got corrupted, and legalized gambling made the attraction of horse racing -- which, at the time, had the only form of legalized gambling other than casinos in Las Vegas -- much less. Football is at the top of the sports business -- the most attractive draw out there. But if the Lords of Football don't address this problem quickly -- the spectre of crippled, demented former players could loom so largely that the attractiveness of the game could diminish rapidly. If obsolescence and irrelevance could hit mighty companies with people with large brains running them, it could also hit football.

Perhaps more quickly than you think.

Whatever Happened to King Kong Bundy?

I was new to the workforce, having graduated from graduate school. I returned to my hometown. Many friends had moved away, and, yes, it was a grueling job and I didn't have that much free time. So I occasionally peaked in at professional wrestling, if only because it was at the peak of its comic book-like heroics. My favorite tag team consisted of King Kong Bundy and Big John Studd, one of my favorites was Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, and there were the likes of Hulk Hogan, Brett "The Hitman" Hart, the manager Jimmy "The Weasel" Hart, Rowdy Roddy Piper, the British Bulldogs, George "The Animal" Steele, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, Chief Jay Strongbow, Terrible Terry Funk, Andre the Giant and many others.

Bundy was about 6'6", weighed about 450 pounds, was bald as a cue ball, and he and Studd, well, they were better than any defensive tackles the Philadelphia Eagles had (I exaggerate, because pretty quickly thereafter the Birds did have Jerome Brown and Mike Golic!). He was huge.

So, where are you, King Kong Bundy, and what are you up to?

If You Think that the Phillies Are Getting Old, Then The "Core Four" Might Be Ready for the Seniors Tour

Read here (in an article about, among other things, the Yankees' firing of their pitching coach and desire to re-sign manager Joe Girardi) about the aging Yankees. Are they getting old fast? If their core loses effectiveness, how will they establish a new core? How much will it take to re-sign Derek Jeter? Will they have to give him a 4-year deal at $15 million per (when he's worth perhaps a 2-year deal at $10 million per plus a mutual option for another $10 million, taking him to when he's 39 years old), but he's Derek Jeter, one of the best Yankees ever, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, en route to 3,000 hits, an icon, so the bet here is 4 years at $15 million per and the reason he gets it, among other things, is that the $15 million is tip money to the Yankees and Four Seasons-like money to everyone else.

How do you re-fortify? You have a terrific team, but you always need to tweak, tinker, renovate, innovate. Will that renovation mean a major addition, costing 5 years and $100 million for Cliff Lee? Or will the acquistions be more modest?

Let's fire up the hot stove!

Sports Line of the Day, from Dallas

I e-mailed a friend congratulating him on the Rangers' ALCS championship.

His gracious response (including nice words about "my" Phillies) included the following: "Who in Dallas would have thought that on October 25 the Rangers would still be playing and the Cowboys would be out of it?" Who in the world, for that matter?

There are said to be two sports in Texas -- football and spring football.

The Texas Rangers have made a very compelling argument for a third (with all due respect to a troika of NBA teams with a rich history).

Bengie Molina to Get a World Series Ring for Sure!

Molina is the Rangers' starting catcher.

He spent the first 3 1/2 months of the season with the Giants, before they traded him to make room for Buster Posey.

I suppose he wins either way, although. . . I think it would be bittersweet for him to get the ring from the Giants given that they would have defeated his current team to earn the ring.

Not such a bad situation to be in, but I do wonder how guys feel who get rings when they've been traded, been released or been left off the post-season roster.

A ring's a ring, I suppose, but there must be less than a full feeling if you're not on the active roster in the World Series and you weren't hurt or a September call-up.

Princeton Homecoming: Harvard 45 Princeton 28

My son and I attended Princeton's homecoming game against Harvard, and while the Tigers fought valiantly, they fell to their visitors from Massachusetts, 45-28.

The game saw 6 interceptions, some good kick returns, lots of offense, a botched snap on a punt that led to a Crimson score and great running by Harvard. While Princeton's fans and coaches (not particularly in that order) had to be encouraged with the offense, the defense left a lot to be desired and needs improvement. The Crimson ran with impunity, pushed the Tigers all over the field and came away with a convincing victory.

What's more compelling about Ivy League football, though, is the crowd, all 10,000 of them, so here are some observations:

1. Lots of sportcoats seen in the crowd. Would like to schedule a rugby match between the Princeton faithful and the members of the electricians' union in Philadelphia who tailgate on asphalt in South Philadelphia parking lots before an Eagles' game.

2. Lots of pants in colors not found in nature. A woman sat near us wearing mustard-colored corduroys. Sure, it was in the mid-50's mid-morning, but in the sun in the end zone mid-afternoon, it was plum hot out there. Where do these people come from? They don't really live near me, at least I don't think.

3. I saw an undergrad dressed as a tigress at an eating club before the game. Tall, in a skintight black outfit, with a tiger's tale attached. Didn't see how this was all too dignified for one of the most standard-setting universities in the world, unless a) she had lost a bet or b) she was pledging a sorority. I suppose that type of look makes the wearer memorable -- in someone's eyes, at least.

4. The band shows are confounding, because I believe that the band leaders of both schools write their shows not for the fans, but for each other. The humor can get lost on the audience unless they know the titles of the songs that are being played following the narrator's witty banter about the topic of the day. Texas (in terms of precision) and Florida A&M (in terms of music and precision), well, they are not.

5. During the national anthem, we could hear someone trying to sing The Star Spangled Banner in opera-like fashion from a few sections over. That beat the well turned out guy behind me with his trophy wife, as the guy tried to show off by singing the lyrics only to sing them out of order. Hard to tell if he imbibed too much before the game, but he was both off-key and off-lyrics.

6. I heard two fifty somethings discussing a business opportunity a few rows before me, and I heard the term "exit strategy" at least a few times. At Lincoln Financial Field, "exit strategy" means how you can escape the friendly confines expeditiously enough to avoid traffic jams after the game. In Princeton Stadium, it means how you, as a venture capitalist, can maximize the return on your investment. Which is better? The South Philly version or the Central New Jersey version?

7. Funny conversation between two friends of mine at the game, both alums, although neither knew each other. Call one Tad, who came from out-of-town to show his daughter the campus, as she's a high-school junior considering colleges. Tad traveled from far away, and he enjoyed the entire weekend, bonded with his daughter and wonders what her chances are. Call the other Mike, who came from out-of-town to catch part of the game and then attend to other business. Tad was very earnest in his daughter's interest in Princeton and most hopeful that she'll have a shot to get in. Mike, whose sense of humor can be very wry and direct, recalled a session he went to on campus when his teenaged kids were a lot younger. Said Mike, "So, we went to this session held for alumni on the admissions process, and the Dean of Admissions basically said to us, 'Find another school.'" Poor Tad, as that's not what he needed to hear on this beautiful weekend. But Mike might have been doing him a favor by giving Tad a reality check -- as the percentage of kids offered admission keeps shrinking.

8. It's surprising how many mental errors are made on a football field allegedly populated by members of MENSA.

It was a very enjoyable day. Game, then a walk to Thomas Sweet's for an ice-cream blend-in, then an enjoyable drive through Lawrenceville home.

In stark contrast to my beloved Phillies, I really didn't care one way or the other whether my team won or lost. The food was good, the company was better, and the football provided a convenient vehicle for conversation with good friends from out-of-town for an afternoon.

Of course, if the team were 6-0 and in the hunt for a title, the atmosphere would have been different. But, in some ways, I'm thankful that it wasn't, as it's nice to go and relax without hanging on every pitch, every shot, every play. That's probably not what the participants would like to hear, but that's the way it was for me yesterday.

Go Tigers!

Phillies-Giants, Game 6 -- And My Lost Opportunity

Hats off to the San Francisco Giants, who beat the "team to beat" to gain a chance to win their first World Series since 1954 (when they were in New York). The Giants have had a few chance since that time, the most recent opportunity being a loss in Game 7 to the Angels about a decade ago. While the Giants don't have a huge payroll or many marquis names among their position players, they kept on finding the right combination of pitching and hitting to beat the favored Phillies.

Last night, Phillies' fans thought that their team had the edge because Giants' lefty Jonathan Sanchez can have a tendency to be wild (he led the Majors among starting pitchers by walking 96 batters this year) and because they were in their home park. And, true to the script, the Phillies got to Sanchez early, knocking him out of the box after 2+ innings. The Phillies took a 2-0 lead, and Phillies' fans felt good about taking the NLCS to a seventh game. While Phillies' starter Roy Oswalt didn't have his best stuff -- he couldn't locate his curve and at times had trouble locating his fastball -- he gave them 6 solid innings while yielding only 2 earned runs after relieving a few nights ago in San Francisco. So, you'd figure that the combination of Oswalt's pitching and Sanchez's pitching would have been enough for a win.

Sadly for the Phillies, it wasn't. The Giants' bullpen roared to the occasion, bending intermittently but not breaking, and the Phillies continued their drought with men on base. You just can't keep on squander chances -- men on first and second with no outs a few times and the bases loaded once -- and win against your opponent in a championship series. But that's precisely what happened -- the team couldn't get the big hit, and, as a result, they are going home before they thought they would once the playoffs began.

Here are a few other thoughts:

1. H20 Wasn't All That It Was Cracked Up To Be. There's not much more to say on this point except to say that Roy Halladay didn't dominate (his performance in Game 5 was commendable after he tweaked his groin muscle), and neither did Cole Hamels (who struggled in Game 3, throwing more than 4 pitches per at-bat to almost half of the Giants' hitters).

2. It Was a Team Effort. While Ryan Howard will be singled out for not knocking in a run the entire post-season and for leaving 4 men on base in Game 6, you cannot pin the frustrations of the post-season entirely on him. The entire team struggled hitting with runners in scoring position. Some pitchers pitched better than others. But at the end of the day, the Phillies had their chance, and they couldn't knock in runs. Strand that many runners, and you're going home.

3. Ryan Madson Is Absolved. Yes, he pulled a silly stunt early in the season when he kicked a chair, broke his toe, and missed 2 months, but he pitched great after he returned and pitched well in the post-season. Yes, he gave up the NLCS-winning home run to Juan Uribe, but he was one of the mainstays who got the Phillies to the post-season, and relievers do give up hits and home runs. The timing, of course, was bad, but Madson is one of the best set-up men in the game and will continue to be.

4. The Oomph Seemed to be Missing from the Phillies. If you watch a video of the playoff run in 2008 and contrast it to the body language in the dugout this post-season, something was missing from the Phillies. Was it relaxation? Happiness? Confidence? Enjoyment? Hard to tell, but the team didn't show the oomph it did in 2008. That lack of oomph, at times, frustrated Phillies' fans. We all were waiting for someone to step it up and light up the entire team, but no one did. We thought it might have been Jimmy Rollins' steals in Game 5, but that didn't do it. And then few hit with men on base. It seemed like the Phillies were playing more to protect a reputation than to build upon one, and that's a lot of pressure to put upon yourself. There was a tightness to the Phillies that hadn't been present in 2008 or 2009, and no one stepped up to relieve the team of the burden they placed upon themselves.

In retrospect, Roy Halladay's no-hitter in Game 1 of the NLDS might have been a bad thing for the Phillies. The pundits had made them the favorites to win the World Series, and, as we know, many who go in as favorites go out as teams defeated along the way. Halladay's win might have given them a sense that the post-season would be easy, that the hitters could ride the wave of the "H2O" hype that, quite frankly, was a bit too preemptively celebratory. If you parse through the victory over the Reds in the NLDS, as a Phillies' fan you would have been more relieved than elated. True, the pitchers showed up big, but the hitters didn't hit, and the Reds helped defeat themselves more than you beat them (although a similar observations could be made about this year's Braves team). Did the hitters think that the wave of strong pitching would continue?

5. Who Does a Phillies' Fan Root For -- the Giants or the Rangers? Some would say that you root for the team that beat you so that it validates what a good team you lost to. For me, it's a choice between the story of redemption of the Rangers' skipper Ron Washington and centerfielder Josh Hamilton combined with the magic of Cliff Lee, versus the wizardry of skipper Bruce Bochy, the precociousness of catcher Buster Postey, the transcendance of a young pitching staff and the "scrap heap" aspects of the Giants' everyday lineup. There are compelling story lines, even if the executives at FOX Sports were probably rooting very hard for an East Coast presence in the World Series.

Both teams present sad ironies for the Phillies. If Cliff Lee excels, then Phillies' fans will feel even sadder (even if happy for Lee) because the team opted to trade Lee after acquiring Roy Halladay instead of coupling the two with Cole Hamels for what could have been one of the most devastating starting rotations in a few generations in the National League. Then again, most Phillies' fans would concede that if there is any non-Phillie worthy of a World Series championship ring, it's Cliff Lee. On the other hand, if the Giants win, then Pat Burrell and Aaron Rowand would get World Series championship rings. Somehow, both are well-liked as Phillies alums by the Philadelphia faithful, although I would contend that Rowand is (much more) respected because of his grit and the memorable play when he ran into the center field fence to catch a ball, breaking his nose in the process. Burrell, on the other hand, went out with grace, but to many was an enigma who didn't make the most of his potential coming out of the University of Miami. Yes, he put up some good numbers, but he had significant holes in his game and was streaky to an extreme during his last two years in Philadelphia.

And, yet, who would have thought that Pat Burrell would be in a better position to earn his second World Series ring -- before Rollins, before Utley, before Howard? And who would have thought that he would have done so after failing in Tampa and getting released at mid-season? And, finally, who would have thought that he'd be more valuable to his team than Raul Ibanez is to the Phillies (and perhaps the Phillies could have used another righty bat to complement Jayson Werth and counterbalance Utley and Howard)?

Somehow, though, the former seems more agreeable than the latter. I want to see Cliff Lee win his first World Series championship ring. I am not jazzed about seeing Pat Burrell get one at the expense of his former teammates.

6. We Had Tickets to Game 7. I had explained that Game 7's are magical, that you never know who might step up, who might make an appearance coming out of the bullpen. And we had tickets, too, including one for me in the second row behind home plate should a Game 7 happen (a friend called at around 4:45 on the day of Game 6 asking me to join him for Game 7). The possibilities of a Game 7 intrigued us very much -- even if it were to be on a school night. Rooting for your favorite team knocks out a principle every now and then -- because Game 7's don't come around that often and, well, you just need to be there. You have to be there. Alas, though, it wasn't meant to be, with the result that we'll all get more sleep tonight -- even though we would have preferred not to.

7. Consoling a 10-year Old Boy is Hard. My son cried after the game, frustrated with the Phillies' futility with runners in scoring position and the inability to make timely plays or get timely hits to win. His father, after Ryan Howard took the called third strike to end the game, got over the loss pretty quickly. The son couldn't understand why his favored Phillies struggled or why Howard didn't swing at a close pitch with the game on the line. The father reasoned that the Giants outplayed and outmanaged the Phillies and deserved to win, credited the Giants and called it a night, masking his disappointment that after such a heroic regular season the Phillies couldn't honor it better with better hitting, pitching, fielding (yes, fielding, which was bad at times) and managing. Perhaps the son's expression of grief is better -- he got it out of his system. After all, being a fan is mostly about emotions, about connecting with a team, having a hobby, having a release -- and when that connection falters, it hurts. You don't wake up with the bounce in your step that your team did well or that your team has a chance to do better. No, that bounce is now gone for the winter, gone while two other teams will vie for a prize that you thought your team would have fought for. Something is missing, and that's bothersome, no, it hurts. Yes, you're thankful for the Series win in '08 and Series appearance in '09, and, yes, you realize that people in Kansas City and Pittsburgh have had nothing to cheer about for the longest of intervals, but that fact doesn't offer much consolation, because you don't live there and those teams are not yours. It's just that your favorites -- the very professionnal Utley, the first baseman of the mythical strength, Howard, the future Hall-of-Fame pitcher Halladay, the catalyst Rollins and the soul, Ruiz -- all let you down.

And that's just not supposed to happen.

Not to a ten year-old boy.

Not to a true believer.

8. Quo Vadis? It's hard to say at this point, but pretty soon the writers who cover the Phillies will dissect the team and the season, talk about who's under contract, who's eligible for arbitration, whether the Phillies will sign Jayson Werth or offer an extension to Jimmy Rollins, how they'll rebuild the bullpen and how they will get younger. And they'll do so in great detail. (The one thing I'll wonder about now is whether Werth will simply take the best contract from the highest bidder -- even if it means going to an also-ran -- or whether he'll focus on teams who have a better chance of winning sooner than later. I read in ESPN the Magazine that Detroit is the favorite for Werth, but last time I checked, I didn't get a sense that the Tigers are all that close to contending. I would think that the Dodgers, Padres, Angels, White Sox, Red Sox, Yankees and Rays would all be better fits for Werth).

And, perhaps, the biggest question of all is how much further can this nucleus of players go? They've enjoyed much success -- NLDS in 2007, World Champions in 2008, World Series in 2009, NLCS in 2010 -- but the position players average more than 30 years of age (and I'd bet closer to 31.5). 6 of the position players -- save Werth and the offensively challenged Raul Ibanez -- missed significant time to injuries this season. Was that a fluke, or is it a signal that as players age, if they have a tendency to get injured they'll continue to have that tendency and that age dictates they'll get injured more? That's a concern that the front office will need to think about in the off-season.

An off-season that, after the ups and downs of the regular season, came much too quickly and ended with an effort that belied the grit and determination the squad showed all year, and especially after mid-July.

Sure, if you had said to me in mid-July "hey, you're team will make the NLCS" -- after all the injuries -- I would have said, "wow, really? I'll take it." But somehow, some way, it just wasn't enough.

Not for the fans, and, I'm sure, not for the team, either.

It will be a long off-season.

NBA Outlook is Dismal

Read here and see what I mean.

Either there are too many teams or the players are making too much money or there is a little bit of both. The owners are gearing up for a lockout for next season or a complete shutdown of the entire season. The players' union is telling its players to save their pennies (and hundreds of thousands of dollars) so that they can ride out the armageddon that the next collective bargaining agreement could be.

Commissioner David Stern hasn't been fully clear on the league's strategy. At the same time he boasts of 600,000 basketball hoops going up in China, he laments the current economic structure of the league. And, no, he's not "outsourcing" NBA jobs to China; he wants demand for basketball to grow so much as to eclipse the popularity of soccer as the world's favorite sport. It's an interesting thought -- to expand all over the world -- but that's hard to do when your core is weak.

So, what's the strategy? Have a core which is the NBA and all sorts of hubs, or have the core be not the entire NBA (including players and teams) but the NBA's front office, which then would have many hubs, including the NBA USA. The latter seems to make more sense and seems to be where the NBA is going, or, where it should be going. The owners might see more revenue in 20 years from NBA's all over the world than from residuals from leagues all over the world and the NBA in the USA. Consider the huge populations in India and China, not to mention Russia and Brazil, and you'll understand why.

But that strategy will require a pivot, because right now the NBA is almost totally the U.S. market and the league that plays in the U.S. And those players who play in the U.S. create the worldwide demand for merchandise, so while the NBA fathers might want a bigger international footprint, their golden goose is the image that's projected with guys named Bryant, James, Nash, Stoudemire, Paul, Durrant, Pierce, Noah, Howard, Duncan and the like. Wreck the uneasy relationship between ownership and players and you'll damage your brand and create a credibility problem for any international strategy. (Apparently the relationship between the players and owners is so toxic that the league has advised vendors about potential demand for merchandise for next season -- and that outlook is dreary).

If you're an NBA fan, you should be very concerned. Your league's current economic model isn't sustainable.

Or so it seems.

Phillies-Giants, Game 5

What a weird night in gloomy SF weather, 62 degrees, 15 mph winds, drizzle, rain. . . Eric Karros of Fox was very sure that Tim Lincecum of the Giants would dominate, while Phillies' alum and Fox commentator Mitch Williams was equally sure that the series (and not just the Phillies) would be returning to Philadelphia.

The umps continued to make Rookie League mistakes, there was a fair bunt that wasn't, a botched throw, an otherwise outstanding pitcher who has trouble holding runners, a star pitcher pitching through both a tweaked groin and a tweaked strike zone (the former was his alone to bear, the latter a burden for both teams' hurlers), some at-their-prime stars stepping up, a few steals here, a key home run hit a long way late, and a bullpen that honored its team's regular season by being, well, lights out.

4-2, Phillies, thanks to, among others, a goofball call by the plate ump, a gritty effort by the tweaked Roy Halladay, some key hitting by previously out-of-sync Phillies, great pitching by Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge to end the game, and voila, the series is now 3-2, Giants, heading back to Citizens Bank Park for Game 6 on Saturday night. (I have tickets to Game 7 and hope to use them).

Still, you'd rather be the Giants, up 3 games to 2, as the odds favor that your team will go to the World Series while the Phillies will go hunting, golfing, racing alternative terrain vehicles or get some sun in the Bahamas, well, at least before your team will. Game 6 will feature Roy Oswalt gainst Jonathan Sanchez, and Game 7, if there is one, will be a rematch of Game 3, where Matt Cain was awesome and outpitched Cole Hamels.

What will happen? Well, the Phillies looked dead after Game 4 and dead at the beginning of Game 5, when the Giants took a 1-0 lead. But, they roared back, and now the pressure is on the Phillies to win three in a row and the Giants not to let the series get to Game 7, where anything can happen.

Good night for the Phillies last night, as they honored their regular-season efforts in a series where, quite frankly, they had been a different team from the one that led the Majors in regular-season victories, with 97. All the pieces came together, and they looked, well, like the Phillies of September, and not the Phillies, heretofore, of mid-October.

Thoughts on the Phillies-Giants: That's Why They Play the Games

Many observations, as follows:


1. The Giants' starting pitching is that good. Phillies' fans hoped last season that the Giants wouldn't make the playoffs because no one wanted to face Lincecum, Cain and Company. Sure, the Phillies are slumping, but some pretty good pitchers are making them miss.


2. Buster Posey has a very bright future (and more upside by far than any Phillies' position player, as most of them are older than 30). It's rare when such a dynamic and influential rookie comes along, but Posey is tremendous.


3. Post-season series are full of the Bucky Dents of the world, and this year's version is Cody Ross (who killed the Phillies when he was with the Marlins).


4. How sweet must the revenge be for Pat Burrell and Aaron Rowand? Three years ago, the Phillies had four outfielders, and it was obvious that the gritty Rowand would command (way) too much on the free-agent market (he got 5 years at $12 million per), so the Phillies let him go to make room for (a cheaper and faster) Shane Victorino. Burrell slumped pretty badly during large portions of the 2007 and 2008 season, and despite fans' frustrations drew praise for the way he handled himself when he knew he wouldn't return. Tampa Bay signed him to a 2-year, $16 million deal (before the recession of '08 hit, he thought he'd get more), but he wasn't fully healthy in Tampa and struggled mightily. Tampa Bay put him on the scrap heap at mid-season, and some thought he might be done. Instead, he sucked it up, went to AAA Fresno to show the Giants he still could play the outfield, and he's contributed mightily to the Giants' cause. And, to top it off, he's contributed more than the older player the Phillies replaced him with, Raul Ibanez.


5. Phillies' fans love Charlie Manuel, but last night he managed more like the guy who couldn't get the team to the World Series in the 1970's (Danny Ozark) than the Charlie Manuel of most recent memory. Why? For a few reasons. First, he elected to start Joe Blanton, who hadn't pitched in almost 3 weeks, instead of Roy Halladay on three days' rest. So what does Blanton do? He throws two wild pitches in the first inning to set up the Giants' first run when he only threw two wild pitches all season (in 175 2/3 innings). Then, he cannot go five innings, exposing the Phillies' bullpen. Compounding that issue was the fact that he pitched a fair-to-middling reliever -- Chad Durbin -- much more than a reliever who had a very good season -- Jose Contreras. Durbin was awful, and that decision cost the Phillies. Then, Manuel opted to warm up and use Roy Oswalt, which had many Phillies' fans livid, if for no other reason than if this were such an important game to go to such a big guy like Oswalt in relief on very short rest, why didn't Manuel start Halladay on short rest to begin with? Atop that, third-base coach Sam Perlozzo almost killed a rally by sending Carlos Ruiz on a not long enough single to center (indicating that the 3B coach had no faith that the next hitter, Chase Utley, would get on base -- which Utley did). Okay, so Manuel isn't Perlozzo, but he could have bunted a struggling Jimmy Rollins in the sixth with no outs and Jayson Werth on second to advance Werth, and he failed to do so. In contrast, Giants' skipper Bruce Bochy continues to manage like Merlin, moving players around, double-switching, substituting, as though he has an old car trying to win one more race and he'll borrow parts and fuel to get the car around the track one more time. Charlie is an excellent manager, but Bochy is outpointing him in this series.


6. If you had told me that the oft-injured, battered Phillies team of July would a) have the best record in baseball and b) get to the NLCS, I would have asked for some of what you were on and taken a large dose, and, yes, settled for that. That's true, and I think that most Phillies' fans would agree. That said, the way the Phillies have played dishonors the noble efforts of the late summer and September. They are pressing, lurching and struggling. True, the Giants don't want to go back to Philadelphia for a sixth game, but you'd rather be the Giants right now than the Phillies.


7. Do injured players continued to get injured once they've shown that they have had a tendency to get injured, and, do they get more injured as they age? If so, the Phillies will have some real (future) concerns with their lineup, as everyone is 30 or older, and many have been hurt for significant periods of time (Utley, Rollins, Victorino) in more than one season. Put differently, the Phillies will not be able to count on this lineup's staying healthy for 140+ games a season. But that's next year's problem. Tonight's is figuring out a way to beat Tim Lincecum. If they can hit Lincecum around a bit, then perhaps they'll shatter the Giants' well-developed and rightfully confident outer shell, and then anything can happen in Philadelphia. But right now the favorites look tired and the underdogs look like the favorites, and, yes, that's why they play the games.


Kudos to the Giants for not listening to the pundits and battling each game like there's no tomorrow. Some Phillies' fans are questioning whether the team got "dumb, fat and happy" after the success of the past four regular seasons, and I don't think that's the case. It's a team that probably peaked too early, a team that has gaps in the ways it hits, a team whose catalysts are not at full strength, and a team with gaps in its bullpen. That's the thing with some thoroughbreds -- they need the right track with the right conditions to win. In contrast, the Giants seem to be able to win anywhere -- with many fewer thoroughbreds in their stable.

Off With Their Heads?

Yesterday, Falcons' defensive back Dunta Robinson put a vicious hit on the Eagles' WR DeSean Jackson that left Jackson unconscious for 7 minutes and asking why he was being walked off the field after the head. Robinson's hit was a "head to head" hit, and it drew a flag. Last night, Rodney Harrison, the one-time Patriot great, said that every year he put away $50,000 to pay in fines for hits like that. He offered that suspensions would be a better deterrent than just fines, because a suspension would take the player off the field and take a paycheck away from the player.

That's a good thought, and the NFL has to do something to stop this behavior before a combination of

a) more and more data about former players with brain injuries surfaces;
b) more and more former players are unable to support themselves or take care of themselves properly because their benefits aren't good enough and their post-football earning power isn't strong enough; and
c) someone gets killed out there;

compels Congress to legislate. Students of history will recall that President Teddy Roosevelt reformed the game of football at the turn of the 20th century when there were fatalities that were caused by some practices that continue to be outlawed today (such as forward motion). Do the NFL, the lords of college football and the kings of high school football want that? Should the parents want that? Should the public demand it, because the "after" picture of "Glory Days" is quite ugly?

So here are a few suggestions:

1. The team of a player who makes a hit like the one Robinson made gets hit with a 15-yard penalty. Okay, that's obvious.
2. Automatic ejection for the player.
3. Automatic suspension for the amount of games the other player misses, with a minimum suspension (with loss of pay) of two games.
4. A $50,000 fine.
5. And you can figure out the rest for repeat offenders. Out for the year?

Critics of this criticism will argue that reformers will ruin the game and turn it into 2-hand touch. Hardly. Look, the evidence seems to be compelling about all sorts of awful injuries players suffer that cripple them for life. Something needs to be done about hits like these -- before someone gets paralyzed or killed, before we have too many former players who suffer mental illness before 50, and before someone does it for professional football.

Remember, we all love players who use their heads.

Figuratively.

Not literally.

Phillies' Fans Shouldn't Despair

Phillies' fans shouldn't despair despite last night's loss in Game 1 of the NLCS -- for a variety of reasons.

1. Give the Giants credit, a lot of credit, as they fought their way through the traffic jam that was the NL West late in the season, kept their cool, and kept finding a way to make things happen, even despite a position-player lineup more laden with cast-offs than built with All-Stars and with having the guy who was their best position player at the season's outset -- Pablo Sandoval -- sitting on the bench. Give GM Brian Sabean and Manager Bruce Bochy a ton of credit for being able to put together lineups despite not having the marquis players that the three other teams in the post-season have. And that makes the Giants much more dangerous and very formidable -- these guys have something to prove, and they've gotten off to a good start proving it.

2. Cody Ross kills the Phillies. Joe Buck of FOX told the story last night that the Marlins had put Ross on waivers late in the season, and the Giants only picked Ross up to prevent the Padres, who at the time had a better record than the Giants and, therefore, came after them in the waiver selection process, from picking him up because they were desperately looking for hitting. The Giants really didn't intend to play Ross much, but he grew on them, and last night he seized the bright lights on the big stage with two home runs. I cannot recall specifics, but Ross was a tough out at worst and a very good hitter at best for the Marlins when they played the Phillies. This is what the post-season is all about -- guys like Ross who step up and grab the headlines when the bright lights are focused on anyone but the likes of him at the time the game starts.

3. As an interesting aside, is it a safe bet to say that last night's game marked the only time in the history of baseball that the #8 hitters in each lineup homered in their first at-bats? (Carlos Ruiz went yard for the Phillies in his first time up to tie the game at 1).

4. Series aren't made or broken in 1 game. Now, it may be the case that the Yankees take three straight from the Rangers in the ALCS, but you might have thought that the Rangers were damaged beyond repair after blowing a 5-run lead in Game 1, only to come back and take Game 2 7-2. The Phillies' defeat was far less devastating than that, and they're at home tonight before a friendly crowd.

5. Phillies' fans (at least some of them) will remember the 1983 World Series, when they took Game 1 from the Orioles and got all giddy that the Orioles (with their great pitching) might not have been all that they were cracked up to be and that the Wheeze Kids (who featured future Hall of Famers Joe Morgan and Tony Perez at the very end of their careers and also Pete Rose, who was close to the end) might have another championship in them for the Schmidt-Carlton era Phillies. Well, the giddiness turned into despair about a week later, when the Orioles won four straight and the World Series. Moral of the story: take one game at a time. Second moral of the story: it's not time to get anxious until it's really time to get anxious. Now, I'm sure that the pundits on TV will bandy about stats that suddenly make the winner of Game 1 the favorite to win the series, and the Phillies will have to deal with all of that. It's the job of both managers to keep their teams level throughout the series.

6. For what's it's worth, the home plate up, Darryl Cousins, had a tiny strike zone last night for both pitchers. If you're a starting pitcher, it's probably not comforting to have as the home plate ump in one of the biggest games of your career wearing glasses (just kidding). All that said, he pinched both pitchers, and didn't make a difference in the game (even if some Phils' fans will argue mightily that he missed a called third on a Giants' hitter that would have prevented a 2-run rally in the middle of the game that enabled the Giants to score their third and fourth runs). Bottom line: Cousins missed (or didn't miss) an equal number of calls for both teams last night, and that's baseball, so hitters and pitchers alike just have to deal with it.

7. Bruch Bochy made a great call in that inning by pinch-hitting Nate Schierholz for Pat Burrell (who must have done cartwheels over his performance against his old team last night). Schierholz scored from second on a hit to center; had Burrell been the runner, the third-base coach would have stopped him at third.

Hats off to the Giants, who came into an energized ballpark full of loud fans and took care of business in Game 1. It's now up to the Phillies to turn this back into a series that people will remember for it's drama and back-and-forth, and not for its failure to score enough runs despite being the (heavy) favorites.

Welcome to Fans from "Baghdad by the Bay"

Okay, so Herb Caen I am not, but I lived in Northern California for three years, during which time a) an earthquake leveled Coalinga, California, b) the Giants were in the NL West race during the last week of the season, only (i) to host less than 20,000 fans a night when the Astros (who would go on to win the division) came to town and (ii) to have Joe Morgan hit a home run against the Dodgers on the last day of the season to knock their archrivals out, c) "the play" in the Big Game between Cal and Stanford (this description is for those in Southeastern Pennsylvania, as everyone in Northern California knows what "The Big Game" is and refers to San Francisco (and not New York) as "The City"), and d) see the 49ers hit their stride. I haven't been back much since, but I remember my days there very well.

Here are a few observations about the Phillies-Giants series:

1. It's inexplicable to me that Pat Burrell remains beloved in Philadelphia. Yes, he was a member of the World Champions in 2008, but by the end of 2007 he was a statue in left field and for most of 2008 he didn't hit, and he also didn't hit in the World Series (save a double in Game 5 that, yes, was very much helpful). It's also (pleasantly) surprising that after a horrid 1 1/2 years in Tampa he resurrected himself with his hometown team.

2. The team that wins this series could do so by scoring less than 10 runs in 4 wins, perhaps as few as 7.

3. Both teams have terrific new parks. In constrast, their old parks were not so great. To be fair, Veterans Stadium was a curiosity when it opened in the late 1960's and a big improvement over Connie Mack Stadium, but by the end it was one of those space-age curiosities that was neither well-suited for football or baseball. Candlestick Park, on the other hand, couldn't ever have been well-suited for baseball. For example, in 1962, Stu Miller was blown off the mound in an All-Star game. In the summer of 1984, my father and I went to a Phillies game at the Vet in mid-August, and it was about 95 degrees with 85% humidity. A week later, I returned to Northern California, and a friend of mine and I went to see the Phillies (ironically) play the Giants at the Stick, where it was 55 degrees with a 25 mile-an-hour wind off the bay. In Philadelphia, we wore t-shirts and shorts. At the Stick, we wore long pants, many layers, took blankets and drank hot chocolate (and I've never had a good hot chocolate at any baseball game or football game, for that matter).

4. I rooted for the Giants as a little kid, because my father, who was born in New York, rooted for them and loved Willie Mays. I recall going to Giants' games with him at Connie Mack once upon a time. We switched our allegiance to the Phillies when a) they got better in the mid-1970's and b) it became increasingly impractical to root for an out-of-town team (although, today, with the internet and cable packages, it's much easier). I have a good friend who remains a Giants' fan to this day, despite growing up in New Jersey and living in the Philadelphia suburbs.

5. Okay, we don't have Anchor Steam, don't eat a lot of sourdough, don't have our own wine country, don't have cable cars, two baseball teams (although, truth be told, most San Francisco residents -- never, ever call the place "Frisco" -- wouldn't go to Oakland to watch a baseball game, even if the Hungarian sludge made its way from Lombard Street to the Marina District and toward ATT Park). But we do have cheese steaks, crab fries, the Liberty Bell, soft pretzels, Tastykakes, the Big Five, an electric baseball park and many other good things to offer. We also have passionate fans, and they bridge every socioeconomic, racial and ethnic group.

As for predictions, well, it's hard. The Giants have excellent pitching, but so do the Phillies. The Phillies' lineup is better, but the Phillies' lineup hasn't hit nearly as well this year as it did in 2008. The bullpen isn't as good as in 2008, either, but two things are more pronounced -- the team's starting pitching and the team's grit, which was always pretty good. This team has rebounded from more casualties than Lucky Leckie's platoon in "The Pacific", and with that comes a determination and confidence that they can overcome just about anything. That grit -- along with playoff experience and tremendous leadership -- from skipper Charlie Manuel to Jimmy Rollins, their first among equals, to the determination of spiritual leader Carlos "Chooch" Ruiz -- should give the Phillies the edge, perhaps in 6 games.

But here's the thing: the Phillies came out of nowhere to win in 2008. Remember, in 2007 they relied upon a Mets' collapse to make the playoffs, only to run into superior pitching from the Rockies to get swept. The following season, of the four teams in the NL post-season, they were the least talked about going in. The Brewers had acquired CC Sabathia from the Indians for the stretch run, the Rockies had a torrid run to make the post-season, and the Dodgers had acquired Manny Ramirez mid-season and he hit over .400 in the second half. Yet, the Phillies dismantled both the Brewers and Dodgers and made it to the Series.

Here's the point: teams that have been their before don't always get there again or, if they do, succeed when they're there. If that were the case, then the team that won the first World Series -- the Pirates -- would have won every one of them since 1903. The Phillies have the experience, the Giants the desire to show everyone that they belong in the conversation with the Yankees and Phillies. What will win out -- the desire to knock the veterans out, or the experience that says "we're far from done, and we want to establish ourselves as a dynasty." Both are compelling motivations, and with the marquis names among the pitchers, it should be a great series to watch.

Watching Middle School Girls' Volleyball

It's an old gym, one with the pull out bleachers that look like they came from the Nixon administration, a high ceiling, steel beams, and a floor that might predate Nixon (perhaps from the Lyndon Johnson era). The scoreboard doesn't always work, the officials are rather grey, and the other team didn't bring its whole squad, just 6 starters and one substitute. Two parents were there to support the visitors, while parents of about eight of the fourteen girls on the home team were present to cheer their girls on.

It's a pure game, a game that requires communication and teamwork, and a game whose roster reflects returning veterans and promising newcomers, none of whom has any connection to a coach or league president (unlike many travel sports). There aren't any travel volleyball programs for girls who aren't in high school, so they either pick it up in gym class or at a summer camp, the latter experience sometimes more resembling a glorified game of newcomb than volleyball. Lots of kids try out -- and I'm sure that some good jumpers and fast runners don't make the team, if only because the coach has a good way of seeing who's a team player and who cuts corners in drills. They practice hard -- they do aerobic exercises (dozens upon dozens of squats), and they practice bumping, hitting, serving and digging. The coach experiments slightly with his lineups. He has a core 4 or 5 players and has been trying to find the right player for the final starting position.

Today, my daughter's team played a weaker opponent. She's one of three captains, and she vowed at the beginning of the season to show better leadership than the eighth graders did last year for a .500 team (last year, the eighth graders didn't mix much with the seventh graders and didn't pass the ball to them; two of the captains from last year showed up today and were astonished as to how well this year's squad is doing). So, we hosted a party after the first game for the kids to bond, and the three captains go out of their way to encourage the rest of the team. The results are proof of the better leadership and teamwork -- halfway through the season, the team is 6-1, and the one match that they lost had two very close games. In that game, the team made too many mistakes to win. Today, they didn't call balls out (and therefore not go after them) that were in, and balls didn't fall among the players. They were prepared, they were hungry, and they got to every ball and had many good serves and returns.

What I liked about the match particularly was the smiles the girls showed after good points and after winning each of the two games. They had their game faces on when they needed to, and they were confident enough to try more advanced serving techniques, even if there was a risk of failure -- hitting the ball into the net or out of bounds. It's amazing what they can do -- set, serve, save, pass -- and they did it all pretty well.

As a parent, I just sat there and watched, silently rooting for my daughter and publicly applauding everyone for their good play. Volleyball is a great game, and you realize that even the best players can make mistakes. And then those who win come back from them.

My daughter played a key role today. The team had experimented serving overhand with mixed results, and after winning the first game handily her team was tied at 11 in the second game. The only reason the game was close was because her coach had instructed her teammates to serve overhand. But now it was her turn to serve, and I recalled something that my late father had offered years ago when watching a baseball game -- that it's much easier to win when your pitcher throws strikes. My daughter reverted to her underhand serve -- I advised my wife that it was brilliant on her part to switch tactics when the overhand serve still needs some work -- and she reeled off ten points in a row with low line drives and sank quickly after crossing the net. After her serve was over, the game was no longer close, and then her team pulled away. After the game my daughter advised that it was her coach who instructed her to serve underhand -- she had been ready to continue serving overhand.

This type of team sport is very rewarding. The kids enjoy it very much, you don't have to get up at 5 a.m. to drive 45 miles for a game, your life isn't dependent on every call of an umpire, and you don't have to worry where your daughter will play because his oh-for-the-spring daughter has to start somewhere.

Middle school sports are both a pure meritocracy and pure, precisely because there isn't a way for the parents to get involved and mess it up.

The pace isn't nearly as electric as good high school volleyball and college volleyball, both of which I recommend for their speed, teamwork and grace, but it's a very peaceful and enjoying time nonetheless.