Trick question for you – isn’t the All Star break considered the mid point of the MLB season? If you said yes, go to the head of the class because that’s the traditional view.
However, as with most trick questions, the popular answer is the wrong answer. Most ball teams play their 81st game around the 1st of July a couple of weeks before the actual All Star game which is always played after the 4th of July. For example, the Orioles (27-55) played their 82nd game yesterday while the Nationals at 40-40 will notch their their mid-season game today.
Most of the other MLB teams are also at or very near their 81st game and this year’s All Star game is not until 13 July at Coors Field. (Quick aside here – do you recall the $1 Billion lawsuit some group filed against MLB for moving this year’s All Star game from Atlanta to Colorado (click here.)? It was big news for awhile, particularly on Fox News, but recently the lawsuit was quietly withdrawn following a court ruling that MLB as a private company can pretty much do what it wants to (click here.) I think it is called freedom of something.)
But back to the O’s and the Nats. The good news for us Orioles’ fans looking for a silver lining is that, thanks to the Diamondbacks at 23-61, the O’s are not the worst team in baseball. Second worst maybe but not THE worst. Better news for the O’s is that they have been competitive in most games until about the 7th or 8th innings when the shit starts raining down on them. With their M boys (Mullins, Mancini, Means and Mountcastle) all playing fairly well, there is hope for the future providing the O’s front office doesn’t start willy-nilly trading them away like they usually do when they have some good young players.
The Nats on the other hand have been hot recently. They had won 8 of their last 10 games before they ran into a hotter Dodger team and have now lost 2 in a row to them. The Nats, for some mysterious reasons have a major injury bug plaguing them where they just can’t seem to get everyone well and on the field at the same time. (Think I’d be reviewing my training staff if I were a Nationals’ honcho.)
And yet, despite all the injuries and a typical Nats’ lousy start to begin the season, they now stand at 500 and are only a couple games behind the Mets who I think are playing way over their heads (click here). The Nats can handle the Mets, but as always, it seems that Atlanta will be the team the Nats’ will need to learn how to beat up on come September.
Nats and O’s don’t play til tonight, but today I’ll have the Tour de France on the Buzzy T-V for you to stop by and check it out. The bike race itself is kinda boring but the French countryside views are great. In case you missed this, the lady with the sign was supposedly trying to say hi to her grandparents (click here.) Maybe someone should tell her how all that texting and PM technology works.