NFL gets underway with a full slate of games today, so let’s talk some baseball.
Makes sense to me to do so since I have mostly shied away from talking baseball these past couple months because I was worried that I would jinx the Orioles if I did so. (It’s kinda like I did yesterday in touting 20 point favorite Alabama to blow out Texas and Bama being lucky to eke out a close win.)
However, given that the Orioles have somehow managed to putz away any play off chances on their own with or without any input from me, today, let’s talk some balls and strikes. With 6 months of footballing to go, there is plenty of time to talk yards and downs.
Only 3 weeks now left in the regular season for baseball and our Orioles and Nationals. The Nats have been out of any post-season consideration for some time now and are still on pace to lose 100 games. With the team still up for sale things may be awhile settling down for them. Wonder what’s up with the sale? Answer maybe that $2-3 billion asking price. Also, there is a major issue involving their T-V rights (click here.)
Unlike the Nationals, the Orioles have certainly made things interesting and fun this season. Officially, they still have a shot at making the playoffs even at 6 games back in the Wild Card race. It is not impossible but is very unlikely that they will make any post-season appearance this year. I think it was Earl Weaver who came up with the metric that you still had a good shot at a playoff spot if the number of weeks left in the season equaled or exceeded the number of games your team was behind the loss column of the team(s) in front of you.
With the O’s now 6 games behind Toronto in the loss column and 3 weeks left to play, like Bob said “you don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” ESPN even puts a percentage on their playoff chances as follows:
O’s do have 5 games left to play against Toronto but they would have to win them all to have any kinda shot at over taking them. It doesn’t look good for the Orange and Black boys. Note that the O’s final 3 games of the season are at Camden against Toronto. Sure would be cool if the O’s could at least get within 3 games of them and have that series mean something. The optimist in me wants it to happen, even if it is a crazy pipe dream. (Ever wonder where the term “pipe dream” originated – yep from smoking opium! Go Birds – fly high!!))
However, all this gloom and doom about our guys, doesn’t mean that there aren’t some other good baseball stretch runs in the next 3 weeks. Things have gotten very interesting in a couple of Divisional races both for the lead and the wildcard spots (click here for related story.)
Cleveland and Minnesota with Chicago also in the mix have made the AL Central interesting. Things are not going well for the New York bubbas as the Braves have made a great run to catch up with the Mets in the NL East. And in our AL East, the Yanks are tanking as Tampa Bay is closing on them fast. The Bays have cut the Yanks’ 15 game lead down to a couple of games. With both the Mets and Yankees sweating it out, we will all be able to hear that loud sound of puckering assholes throughout NYC. Ah yes, the sweet sounds of the baseball season.
Got both the Ravens and the Ders’ football games on today at the Store. I’ll be switching channels during their many timeouts to check on the Orioles/Red Sox game.
It’s a 9/11 Sunday, so how’s bout a religious tune? Not really, but still worth a listen to from Lucinda: