While waiting for rain to slacken up one’s thoughts turn first to Soriano who is having what is probably the worst post season any player has had in recent or not so recent memory. At this point he has struck out twenty two times. He has absolutely no clue. He is behind the count 0 and 2 or 1 and 2 on every occasion he is called upon to bat. When he falls behind in the count you know that a strike out is coming up. He hasn’t hit a ball to the outfield,it seems, in his last twenty or so appearances. [Read more →]

Andy Pettitte came within one out of his first world series shutout, as the Yankees evened the series 1-1 heading into game three Tuesday night.

Game three is always a key in any playoff series and 2003 is no exception. With Mike Mussina going against Josh Beckett, it could be a preview to a game seven matchup as well if the teams keep trading wins.

Click Below for other thoughts.

[Read more →]

I’m sure the Yankees woke up this morning quoting the famous line from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” about the posse that chased them all over the Southwest. Looking back and asking who those guys are who keep following us?

The Marlins are a fine baseball team that very rarely beats itself and has a legitimate leader who is having an enormous postseason, Pudge Rodriguez.

Combine all that with some little seen speed these days at the top of the order and some clutch relief pitching (you tell me, will Ugueth Urbina last for three more games) and you’ve got a team that now has the Yankees attention.

My feeling yesterday was that the Marlins needed a split in NY this weekend to have a chance at winning this thing and guess what, if they win tonight the Yanks might be in bigger trouble than anyone in NY will admit.

David Wells pitched a terrific game in the opener, the Yanks let him down with some sloppy play on the bases and in the field.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

After watching three champagne celebrations starting with the end of the regular season, moving on to the division series, and finally the league championship series, I’m not sure I want to see another inane clubhouse party coupled with more senseless interviews.

But, I AM ready to see more baseball in what should be an excellent world series.

I have felt throughout this season that the Yankee pitching is older than normal for them, and waiting to be exposed in the playoffs.

The Twins didn’t have the hitting to do it, falling in four games 3-1. The Red Sox had the power, but not the discipline to truly hit the Yankees all over the lot, but they did hit them enough to win, and other than Grady Little’s refusal to go to his all of a sudden powerful bullpen to seal the deal, they would be in the series today.

The Marlins are young and fresh and they swing the bat. They have survived the gauntlet of the four Cub righthanded starters. The Marlins hit lefties very well. Remember the angst the Giants went through deciding if Kirk Reuter should pitch in Miami or San Francisco.

The Marlins will see David Wells and Andy Pettitte three, maybe four times, if the series goes seven games. This is the best news for the Marlins who were 27-11 against lefties during 2003.

The Marlins can hit the Yankees. The Marlins can do to the NY staff what the Angels did to it in five games last fall.

Click below for more on the series matchup! [Read more →]

The New York Yankees with all
the history in the world, the
most recognized team on the
face of the earth will face a
team that is ten years old
and has one World Series.
To go against the Yankees
here is suicide. But remember,
this is baseball.

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

I feel badly for every Boston Red Sox fan today.

Pedro Martinez gave them the game they had been waiting for seven innings in the most significant start of his career in Yankee Stadium, no less. He held the Yankees down and looked like a hero, wiping away any memory of Saturday’s fiasco in Fenway.

I’ve watched baseball for a long time. We all have become baseball managers watching the playoffs this year. We all know about pitch counts. The announcers are forever lecturing the listeners about the matchups.

But we have two eyes and can see plainly when the pitcher has lost his stuff at the critical part of the game and must be replaced.

That is all of us except Grady Little. I wrote it yesterday that Little has been slow on his pitching decisions during the postseason, almost costing his team game six when he let John Burkett get pounded in a game he couldn’t afford to lose.

To the chagrin of the Red Sox nation he continued that horrid trend Thursday night, robbing the Sox of their chance to go to the world series.

Pedro was cooked before Bernie Williams ripped his hit in the eighth. Alan Embree was ready and willing, throwing 95 plus in every appearance in the series. Mike Timlin had been perfect before allowing one hit yesterday. Scott Williamson had been lights out too. What a menu to choose from.

Little didn’t see it that way. Unbelievably he let Pedro talk him out of removing him from the game. Frankly, watching Pedro when Little came to the mound, the righty didn’t seem to say much, I think he knew he was done, but was just being a warrior, saying he could continue.

Matsui doubled, pulling the ball like a power hitter, which he isn’t. You just sensed bigger trouble ahead.

Posada’s flair was the last straw, tying the game and for all intents and purposes this game was over at that juncture because Mariano Rivera was coming in.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

When this postseason started I wrote that it would be the most exciting we had seen since this three tiered fromat started.

Guess what? It has been the best.

Every team had an arguable chance to make it to the world series. Every team had flaws which could sink it at any time.

The Cubs flaw was its bullpen. Dusty Baker crafted a pitching staff led by top of the rotation starters who threw in the mid to high 90’s. The plan was simple. Let the big boys take the ball into the eighth inning, then and only then trust Kyle Farnsworth and Mike Remlinger to get the ball to season hero Joe Borowski to close the game.

Everything was peachy until game six on Tuesday night. Mark Prior limped through the seventh giving up three hard outs. It was clear in the eighth that he didn’t have the stuff to end the game against the Marlins, a good hitting team. Prior gave up the lead, the bullpen added fuel to the fire. Marlins come back to win game six, a tough loss for the Cubs.

Marlins even the series 3-3 and they look very relaxed heading into game seven.

Kerry Wood tried to go as far as he could Wednesday night in the deciding game. When a big pitcher loses his stuff, the game can get ugly. This one did as it turned nasty after the Cubs took the lead 5-3. The Marlins were on Wood quickly like white on rice.

Wood couldn’t muster the strength to hold the lead. Dusty left him in, as he did Prior, hoping that somehow the Marlins would hit the ball at one of his fielders for the needed outs. They didn’t and routed Wood and his bullpen mates, taking control of the game and the pennant.

When the Marlins starter, Mark Redman, faltered, McKeon went to his starters for relief. Brad Penny and Josh Beckett (the Marlins played 66 innings in the playoffs, Beckett pitched 19.6 of them), held the Cubs totally in check while their bats added more insurance.

Baker wouldn’t go to Carlos Zambrano or Matt Clement for some reason when Wood faltered, McKeon rolled the dice with his frontliners and that, my friends, is why the Marlins won the NL pennant and the Cubs didn’t.

The Cubs big pitchers weren’t used in game seven after Wood gave up the lead, the Marlins were and they held the line turning the game in their favor.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

The Florida Marlins beat the Giants
and then beat the Cubs to make it
to their second World Series since
their birth in 1993. But in Miami
they have a very small fan base
and no new stadium is in the
making and yes, this is a franchise
in serious trouble.

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

For a few hours yesterday the joy reigned supreme. It appeared that all of Chicago was caught up in the wonder of it all. The Cubs, who hadn’t been in a World Series since 1945 and who hadn’t won one since 1908 were slowly and steadily pulling in front of the Marlins. By the time the seventh inning ended they had six outs remaining and the celebrations could commence, although 40,000 fans at the park and who knows how many thousands who couldn’t get in, had been celebrating since the first run was scored in the first inning.

Click below for another fine essay by Ed Stern [Read more →]

The Cubs lost game six last night and now play for the National League pennant tonight against the Florida Marlins in game seven. Whoever wins tonight’s game will be the unlikely winner of the 2003 NL flag. Who did you think would be going to the World Series when spring training started in March?

Did Dusty leave Mark Prior in too long last night? The question for any manager is will the next pitcher give me a better chance to win, then the one I currently have out there.

Prior was clearly not the same pitcher as the inning unfolded. Still his stuff was good, not great, but better than what Kyle Farnsworth could bring on his best day.

Mike Mordecai finished the evening for Chicago with his ringing bases clearing double off Farnsworth, giving the Fish a 7-3 lead.

Tonight, the Marlins throw Mark Redman, a lefty, against Kerry Wood. The Cubs can hit lefties up and down the lineup. You remember games three and four? Can Kerry Wood slow the Marlins down? Certainly, if he has his control, but this is game seven and one mistake can cost you the game. Some of the best pitchers in the game have never faced the pressure of a game seven, and trust me, this game is different tonight.

The Gibsons, Morrises, Koufaxs, and Burdettes have been there and succeeded, cementing their place in baseball history, tonight is Kerry Wood’s chance to put his name with the greats of the game.

Click below for more! [Read more →]