Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 24, 2003
Clinch Night

It was clinch night in the AL as the Yankees, Twins and A's all posted victories, and in the case of the Twins and A's, had their persuers lose. It wasn't easy for the A's. Ryan Drese pitched a high quality start against them. Only last minute heroics in the 9th and 10th by Dye and Melhuse gave them the win. And Durazo stole a base in the 10th! He had only made one attempt this year, and he was caught. I don't know who called for the steal, and I don't see much in the news stories about it. I'll keep my eyes open.

I think this should lay to rest two notions (or maybe it's two different ways of looking at the same notion). One is that you have to be rich to win. The other is that the A's are a fluke. This article on SI.com has a list of team salaries.
The Yankees are #1 in the majors and the AL. The Twins are 8th in the AL. The A's are 12th. They've figured it out. They've figured that everyone else is way overpaying for their wins. I really want to hear Bud Selig say the A's are a fluke now. He should be holding them up to the other clubs as example of how to save themselves millions of dollars.

The other thing I like about the way the post-season is shaping up is the diversity of stories. You have the Yankees, who stride across the baseball world, confident, imposing, daring others to knock them off, never doubting that they can win any game at any time. You have the Braves, the team that despite it's greatness for 12 consecutive years only has 1 World Series title. You have the cursed teams potential in the Cubs and the Red Sox. You have the never won the series potential in the Astros and Mariners. You have the little teams that could in the Marlins and Twins. You have Alou and Bonds, trying to cement their greatness with a sereis win. And finally, you have the Oakland A's and the press just waiting to show that Beane isn't the genius that he professes to be. It's going to be a great October.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:10 AM | Pennant Races | TrackBack (0)