Tomorrow we celebrate our mid-season baseball classic, the All Star Game. Hockey and Basketball are behind us now, and we are focusing our collective attention on Baseball (thank God!). This a great time of the year! It is hot, we are vacationing, and baseball dominates television programming. The game starts at 8:25 PM EDT. Late in the evening, yes, but worth it.
Now, Gadabout plays favorites when it comes to baseball. He is a big fan of the American League, and even a bigger fan of the Detroit Tigers. Gadabout grew up watching Tiger greats like Al Kaline (Hall of Fame), Mickey Lolich (3 game winning pitcher in the 68 World Series), Denny McLain (31 game winning pitcher in 1968, and convicted felon). The entire ’68 team was unstoppable. The Tigers have had up and down years since then, like most teams, but throughout it all I have remained a loyal and steadfast fan despite many dark years. Hey, they took the American League Pennant last year! And the won the 84 World Series! Respectable!
Now, if you are a Tiger fan like me, then you are going to be an American League fan. It's just that simple. Besides Detroit, the American League boasts the Red Sox, White Sox, Yankees, Indians, Orioles, A’s, Blue Jays, Twins, Mariners, Royals, Angels Devil Rays and Rangers. About the only thing that could make the American League perfect, would be if the Cubs jumped ship and joined its ranks. Everybody loves the Cubs. You are not human if you don’t like the Cubbies! The League lost the Brewers during a reorganization a few years back. That was a loss—a team has to be fun with a name like the “Brewers.” Oh well.
Since incorporation of inter-league play, the American league has cleaned up. This year’s scorecard shows a 134-115 lopsided advantage for the AL. It was the same story last year too. “Spank!” Two of the three cellar teams in the AL; Texas and Kansas City, recorded winning records during inter-league play. Nine of the fourteen AL teams have winning inter-league play records this year, three have loosing records and the remaining two teams were .500.
The National League is winless in the past 10 match-ups. There was a 7-7 tie in 2002, but no W’s for the NL since 1996. This year’s match up will be hosted by San Francisco. Grab a six pack of beer, fire up the grill and sit back, relax and enjoy our most American and cherished Classic. “We live for this!” Go AL!
Monday, July 9, 2007
American League Might
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4 comments:
AL has some fine points, but they also have the DH--a bad excuse for giving pitchers a break from having to also play the offensive portion of the game. BTW who is reigning World Series Champs?
The DH adds an interesting dimension to the league, and let's not forget that they play by each other's rules during inter-league play!....The Cardinals beat up the Tigers, but they were both in the big game...you got me there!
GJ
Baseball needs to do something to spark interest in the All-Star game again. Maybe try taking a page out of NASCAR's book, where the winner of its All-Star race gets a cool $1 million. How much time do you think Tigers' pitchers spent in the off season practicing their step-and-throw? If only AL pitchers could get designated fielders too...haha
GO CARDINALS!!
The Melvin hits below the belt! I do agree that the game needs more pep, or something! I like, though, and watch it every year.
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