Man I've been behind a bit. I've had some pretty good topics but just haven't had the time to put them all down on here. Trust me, I'm still moving ahead with this project. While I know that chronologically I should be on the fourth song of the Relient K album, I'm going to take a little break and write a bit about sports, sandwiching a few words about my favorite speech of all time. Without further ado...
Baseball is a game that is meant to be played every day. During a 162 game season, the typical MLB team has 21 off days a year. This includes the three (or four) days during the All-Star Break. It's extremely normal for a player or team to get on a hot streak and start tearing the cover off of the ball. It's not uncommon for players to hit .400 or .500 over a few games, even though that kind of pace is almost impossible to sustain over a full season. The reason is because of momentum. When we play a game day in and day out, it becomes second nature. When we're locked in and playing the best ball of our careers, we are almost unstoppable. Days off or rain delays, while restful to pitchers, may only serve to break hitters out of their insanity. Baseball is a game meant to thrive off players' muscle memory and fast-twitch fibers, which are carefully refined with constant stimulation. It should be played every day until the end of the season.
The Detroit Tigers swept the New York Yankees in the ALCS. Because of the way that the postseason schedule was set up, they had to wait six days for their next game. While this may have felt like much needed rest for Justin Verlander, the rest of the team, while not exactly hitting like the Murderer's Row Yankees of the '20's, was certainly hitting its stride offensively. They were collecting timely hits and chasing certain starters early in the game. Things, it seemed, could only get better. It didn't matter who the National League threw out there...The Tigers were going to win. There was no doubt. But that's when that pesky she-devil "momentum" comes into the picture.
The Giants ended up playing a full 7-game series against the Cardinals, only receiving one off day before beginning the Fall Classic. The Giants were ready to play ball. They weren't "relaxing" in the bitter October cold. They were playing baseball, just like they had been for the previous seven months. They were prepared to play the most important games of the season. The Tigers...were not. Sure, the pundits will say, look how rested they were. They were able to give baseball's best pitcher ample time to recover from a tremendous Game 3 start more than a week before. The batters were all able to refine their batting eye and get rid of any tics that may have been harboring themselves. The team as a whole got a whole week to think about how to attack the National League entrants right where they were most vulnerable and could avenge the 2006 loss at the same time.
But this is where the talking heads get everything wrong. Verlander had been performing every fifth day all year. Why now, days before his last start (or two starts, if necessary) would he change his regimen? Baseball players are notoriously superstitious and messing with that mojo is almost asking for trouble. The hitters were doing the same thing they had been doing all season. Why mess with that days before the last and most crucial series of the year? And all that extra time to think only served to remind them that were heavily favored and had the hopes of an entire city riding on their shoulders. It was, retrospectively, a recipe for disaster.
This is not the first time that it's happened. In 2007, the Colorado Rockies breezed through the postseason (not to mention the last few days of the regular season) by winning 21 of 22 games, one of the hottest streaks in baseball history. After sweeping the NLCS and waiting 8 days, they were swept in four by the Red Sox. In fact, these very same Detroit Tigers in 2006 endured a similar fate. They swept the ALCS and had to wait another week before the next game, losing spectacularly (4-1) to a Cardinals team that had a regular season record of 83-78. It should be noted here that the 2008 Phillies easily dispatched the Rays in the World Series after a weeklong layoff, but that seems to be the exception here rather than the norm.
The problem lies in profit potential. Television networks have become consumed with making money (as they should, of course, this being a capitalist society) and will pull out all the stops to do so. If this means dragging out the postseason as long as possible to add more teams or increase weekend/night games for owners to pocket more cash, then so be it. But it's the teams that are doing well that are suffering. Why should a team that has done what it is supposed to do as fast as possible be punished? They were the best and had proved it, only to be beaten by the cruel vagaries of tempting game and a silly playoff setup. The Tigers deserved more than that....
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