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The "Rap" .......
About Baseball & More......
by Tom Cole
© 2005
October 3, 2005
The End of the Line for Some - A New Beginning for Others
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Dejected Cleveland Indians' Victor Martinez, Coco Crisp and Fernando Cabrera watch from the dugout in the eighth inning Sunday, Oct. 2, 2005 in Cleveland. Needing a win and then help from the New York Yankees to force a one-game playoff with Boston for the AL wild card, Cleveland dropped its season finale 3-1 to the Chicago White Sox. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
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| The end of the marathon has arrived, with a stunning finality. The door slammed shut on the playoff hopes of some, but those teams are the lucky ones. For most teams those hopes ended long ago. The Indians, stunned but not shunned by their adoring and understanding fans, dragged themselves off the field after an utterly disappointing final run at the AL wild card. The Phillies, their hopes for the post season out of their control, watched a scoreboard which could not begin to tell the full story of what was going on in Chicago. Their spirits buoyed at one | point as the aging Maddux toiled on the mound in that classic baseball venue, the former Enron field now Minute Maid Park, in a close game, eventually coughing it up with the final score signaling the finality of a Phillie season that ended in storybook fashion - a 36 game hitting streak by Bay Area native Jimmy Rollins and the magnificence of 2b Chase Utley, powering his team through the final week of the season, hitting homeruns, stretching singles into doubles, carrying his team to the finish line that proved to be as meaningless as that same line so many other teams had reached long before. |
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Washington Nationals' Deivi Cruz (4) is forced out at second as Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley, left, turns a double play on a ball hit by Nationals' Gary Bennett during the sixth inning Sunday, Oct. 2, 2005, in Washington.
The Phillies won 9-3 to no avail as Houston came back to win their game and the wild card also. (AP Photo/Nick Wass) |
| The Indians have much to look forward to next year, but it is difficult to swallow a 93 win season with no October baseball. The unselfconscious enthusiasm of youth that did not know they were supposed to be more reflective finally waned with a 1-5 homestand to end the season, an unthinkable, unpredictable turn of events given the way they had played. Even so, they finished with a 40-13 flourish, but lacked the veteran presence in the lineup to keep the youth as loose as they had played until the fateful fly ball lost in the Kansas City sun a week ago, marking the beginning of a bad run that doomed a spectacular season. The Red Sox, on the other hand, backed into the wild card with 94 victories. Odd to say they “backed” into it, but the Cleveland loss assured the Sox the opportunity to defend their historic title. Schilling struggled through six innings, yielding 8 hits but only |
one run and three strikeouts. Hardly the Schilling of a year ago, and if the Red Sox hope to successfully defend their World Series title, they MUST pitch better. Weaknesses are always exposed during the playoffs, and none of these teams are perfect, but the pitching woes of the Sox are easy to spot as are those of the Yankees which is all good news for Angels and White Sox fans. The NY team carries three former SF relievers on their team, pitchers who SF deemed unreliable, and given the pitching deficiencies of the Giants, one can only imagine the lack of depth in the Yankee bullpen. After Tom Gordon and Rivera, there is not much going on there except some pitchers suited to pitch meaningless innings in lopsided losses. The Cardinals and Angels may be the most balanced teams, cruising effortlessly towards the finish line, assured of the post season and able to rest and re-align their lineup and pitching staffs. Clearly the most balanced teams in the post season party, but nothing is guaranteed and one bad game by a starter can throw an entire pitching staff into disarray in a short series |
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pitcher Scott Proctor during the fourth inning at Fenway Park in Boston, .(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
| The end of a season is also a time for reflection for those teams that do not continue. The chemistry of a team cannot be over emphasized and undoubtedly the players become close with one another, and some will not be returning the following year. Free agency, a boon for player salaries, has contributed to the dispersal of talent as players go in different directions. With the Giants, the possible departure of JT Snow looms on the horizon. As a free agent to be, in spite of his stated desires to stay in the area, there is speculation he may have to depart. Four homeruns from the 1b position is considered unacceptable in | spite of the fact he probably SAVES a run per game with his glove when he plays. Upon singling in the first inning, his 1500th hit, manager Felipe Alou removed him from the game in favor of a pinch runner to a resounding standing ovation. The crowd refused to be seated and let the game resume until he emerged from the dugout to a curtain call, a wave of the hat and a salute to the crowd as well as a nine year career in San Francisco. Randy Winn stepped out of the batters box, adjusted his batting gloves and tapped his spikes, allowing Snow a full opportunity to bask in the accolades. |
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San Francisco Giants' J.T. Snow waves to the crowd after getting his 1,500th career hit against the Arizona Diamondbacks
in the first inning in San Francisco, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2005. The Giants won, 3-1. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
| Little did Winn realize, he too would enjoy a similar moment but for entirely different reasons. Replaced in the 7th inning after his second hit of the day, he too received a standing ovation from the gathered crowd as they had done for Moises Alou just an inning earlier. Winn's efforts the past two months endeared him to the SF fans with his 51 hits in September representing the most by a SF player in 30 years. But the standing ovation was not enough, as the fans demanded more from their centerfielder, a curtain call which is usually reserved for the |
great ones who have just struck a game winning home run rather than manned the outfield for a 75-87 third place team. Winn humbly complied, taking his batting helmet with him from the hat rack for a final wave to a now forgiving crowd which had been known to mercilessly boo the home team on occasion this year, a first for PacBell. The Giants have hopes for next year with the inevitable uncertainty of off season decisions to be made and the impending free agency of Scott Eyre and the health of Bonds' knee. |
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against the Arizona Diamondbacks in San Francisco, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2005. Alou homered earlier in the
game helping the Giants to beat Arizona, 3-1, in their final game of the season. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)