Stats' Spiel :: Time to Catch Up

So here we are, one of the busiest times of the sports year. It's the middle of October and there are a load of things going on everywhere--from Woodland to college to professionals. And it's not just in football, which is the sport most people think of when they think of the fall. We've got the League Championship Series in baseball, Woodland is well into very successful volleyball and soccer seasons, and a steroid scandal that has ruined a career. So where do we start? Well, the MLB playoffs are nearing an end, so we'll start there, but don't worry, I'll cover everything you want to know right here this week.

The League Division Series were the most lopsided series in the Wild Card era. There were 3 sweeps and a 4-game series. The Rockies easily took care of the Phillies, sweeping the first two in Philadelphia before heading back to the Mile High City to take the series. The Diamondbacks and Red Sox took care of their games at home before hitting the road to finish the sweep of the Cubs and Angels, respectively. None of those series were all that exciting. Boston's pitching absolutely dominated the Angels, while Colorado and Arizona both played solidly to set up an all-NL East League Championship Series.

So that covers three of the four series. Which one did I leave for last? Of course! The Yankees/Indians matchup. The Yankee pitching failed mightily, mainly Chien-Ming Wang. He gave up 12 earned runs in 5.1 innings pitched and was credited with the losses in Games 1 and 4. So much for the "ace" of the New York staff. Andy Pettitte pitched solidly in Game 2, but the bullpen coughed up a 1-run lead in the 8th. The killer fly attack completely rattled the "unhittable" Joba Chamberlain, as he threw 2 wild pitched in the inning to allow the tying run to score. A bases loaded hit by Travis Hafner won it in the 11th for the Tribe, who took a 2-0 lead in the series. Despite winning Game 3, the Yanks played very sloppily and Roger Clemens was chased after just 2.1 innings in which he allowed 3 runs. The Bombers did come back in that game, thanks to Johnny Damon, but Cleveland took Game 4 to win the series, 3 games to 1.

So let's examine that wonderful series for the Yankees. Alex Rodriguez performed much better than he had in the last two postseasons...but that's not saying much. He batted .267 with just 1 RBI (on a solo home run) and struck out in several key situations. More on him in just a moment. Derek Jeter grounded into a huge inning-ending double play in the 6th inning of Game 4 with the bases loaded and trailing by 4. Great work, captain. Throw that together with a .176 average in the series with just 1 RBI, and that sums up the 2007 postseason of the most prolific postseason player in baseball history.

Rodriguez' agent, Scott Boras, said that he's likely to opt-out of his contract, which would make him the most precious and valuable free agent in the history of sports. His (regular season) Yankee career was very good: .316 average with 173 homers and 513 RBI. He's going to be asking for $30 million. Who's going to sign him? Well, the Cubs are at the top of my list. If Mark Cuban is part of the group that purchases the club, he's going to make a strong push to sign A-Rod (they've even talked about giving Rodriguez part ownership of the team). The Yankees might try to re-sign him, but I don't think that's too likely. Boston might give it a look, but I think if given the option between Mike Lowell and A-Rod, they might lean towards Lowell. Just a hunch. Finally he might be headed to Los Angeles to play alongside Vladimir Guerrero and the Angels. But we'll see...nothing will happen until around December or so. That is if he actually does opt-out.

Joe Torre also looks to be out the door in New York. He won 4 World Series in his first 5 season, and none since. 4 championships at any other team would get you the lifetime job, but not in the Bronx. A 7-year drought is simply unacceptable. And George Steinbrenner is getting up there in age. He doesn't have too much more time to win another ring or two. But the ultimatum Steinbrenner set after Game 2 of the ALDS was ridiculous. (He said that if the Yankees lost the series, Torre would probably not return.) Really, and this is coming from a Red Sox fan who absolutely loves seeing the Yankees fight, but please shut your mouth George! If he was the manager of the team, he would be absolutely terrible. I know it's his style, but you can't tell your manger you're going to fire him when you're on the brink of elimination from the playoffs. Absolutely ridiculous.

And while we're on that topic, I really think the jobs of mangers are overrated. They don't do much work. In fact, as you go up in levels of baseball, mangers do less and less. The only thing a major league manager has to do is make the lineup and decide when to bring in the relief pitching. He can throw in the occasional argument. That's about it. And American League managers do even less. They don't have to contend with the double-switches when they replace the pitcher that National League skippers have to work with. Torre's, or any AL manager's, impact on their team is exaggerated. He doesn't play, he can't drive in runs, he can't close out the game. All he does is manage. The players do all the work. Baseball games take the least amount of coaching of any sport. Most of the time when a manager is fired, it's not his fault, but rather the team's performance is to blame. But regardless, Torre appears to be out of New York. Look for either Don Mattingly, Joe Girardi, Tony La Russa, or Bobby Valentine to take over in 2008.

So I gave you my predictions last week...Sox over Indians, Rockies over D'Backs (I said Cubs, but I'm sticking with the comeback kids). We'll see how that works out.

So enough baseball for now, let's move onto the NFL. A quarter way through the season, we still have 3 undefeated teams: New England, Dallas, and the defending champs, Indianapolis. The Pats and Cowboys will play this week in the most highly-anticipated matchup of the season. The Cowboys pulled off an amazing comeback on Monday night in Buffalo coming from 8 points down to win on a last-second field goal. The Patriots have been overpowering every team they've played, scoring the most points in the league (182). It will be a tall task for any team to beat New England, but Dallas is one that could probably do so.

Brett Favre set the all-time passing touchdowns record against the Vikings (now 423 TDs), as well as already holding the records for pass completions (5,162), points by a quarterback (2,622), wins (155), consecutive starts (242), pass attempts (8,393), and many others. But where does he rank among the all-time great signal-callers? He's passing Dan Marino in just about every record Marino possessed (Favre is 2,000 yards away from the all-time passing yards record). He passed John Elway in career wins. He's trumped Joe Montana's and Terry Bradshaw's career marks, and also won a Super Bowl. He's done everything a player can do. He is absolutely up with those greats. I would rank him above Marino and Bradshaw, and for now, right alongside Elway and Montana. No doubt though, absolute first ballot Hall-of-Famer. Perhaps the more amazing thing, though, is that he has led the Pack to a 4-1 start. Never underestimate this guy.

And just to take a look at a few interesting things from the rest of the league...

The Rams and Saints were many people's picks to face off in the NFC Championship, and I wouldn't be able to argue with that pick. In fact, the Saints were my NFC Champion. However, both of those teams have yet to win a game. The Chargers were also a favorite of many to win the Super Bowl. They have started 2-3. Who would think that every team in the AFC West would be 2-3 after Week 5? Nobody. The Jets (1-4) and Bengals (1-3) have also disappointed out of the gates. The defending NFC Champions, the Bears, are 2-3 and have replaced Wrecks Grossman at quarterback. Brian Griese isn't doing much better.
On the other hand, there have been several pleasant surprises in the early season. As I said, Brett Favre and the Packers have gotten off to a great start and are atop the NFC North. The Steelers are also off to a 4-1 start and lead the AFC North. The Colts have gotten off to a good beginning in their title defense, as they are still undefeated. The Lions are ahead of those Bears in the North as well. Randy Moss might be the quarter-way MVP for the Patriots after taking a pay cut to play in New England. Great deal for the Pats.

Now onto a different kind of football, just down a level to college. This season has been the year of the upset. And some of these upsets are just ridiculous. Take Appalachian State over Michigan in Week 1. Enough said. Last week, 41-point underdog Stanford went on the road to the Coliseum and beat USC by 1. There have been many smaller upsets around the country as well.

This season shows the reason I like college football, and all college sports, more than most professional sports. Sure, in pro sports there can be upsets. But most of them don't make you say, "wow, this won't happen for another 10 years." Most pro upsets don't happen on the scale that college upsets do. There are no rankings in pro sports. You can't say the 20th-best team in the NFL beat the 2nd-best team, because there's no way to tell which is which. When you see an unranked team take down a top-5 team, it's great to see.

This year, things seem wide open. LSU lost to Kentucky and Cal lost to Oregon State, so the #1 and #2 ranked teams in the country lost this weekend. We will have a new #1, most likely Ohio State, who was 3rd-ranked and won. They probably won't stay there for long, the way things are going. The only qualm I have about college football is the BCS. The root of it is good, ranking the teams combining the polls and computer stats. But the way the ranking are used it bad. They need to do a small playoff system, perhaps the top 4 teams play, and the winners play for the National Championship, rather than the computer's 2 selections. The reason everybody loves college basketball is because the championship is played out on the floor, not chosen by a computer. College football needs to go to that style.

Also recently, Marion Jones, former star US track and field athlete who won several gold medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, admitted that she lied to a grand jury about her steroid use. Just add her to the list of stars on the steroid scandal list. Tim Montgomery (her husband, former World's Fastest Man), Floyd Landis (former 2006 Tour de France Winner), and Rafael Palmeiro (over 500 home runs and 3,000 hits) are three of several athletes whose careers have been ended and tarnished by proven steroid use. And there are many more who are simply suspected of having used the juice.

When all is said and done from the "Steroid Era" in sports, we may want to forget completely about it. But we won't be able to. Senator George Mitchell will be coming out with his report of steroid use in baseball very soon, which is expected to name several players' names. We all want to think that the records and such set in this era are all legitimate, but I suppose we will never really know, which is a shame.

And finally, to take a look at Woodland sports. Obviously, football gets most of the publicity, so we all know that they are 4-1 heading into a huge matchup against Holy Cross this week. It's a huge game both in regard to the NVL Copper Division (both are tied for 1st place) and to the Class SS Standings (the loser will have 2 losses and will be on the bubble of making the playoffs come season's end).

But football is not the only team meeting success. Girls' volleyball is atop the NVL with a 12-1 record, the lone loss coming to Ansonia in 5 games. The girls have swept Seymour and won 2 5-game matches (against Seymour and Torrington). They will probably head into the NVL Tournament as the favorites. Jess Gruemken seems to be able to kill just about everything that comes her way, while Sam LaCroce and Carly Krisavage have great blocking ability at net. Kait Renkewith and Vicky Bell do a great job setting the ball and assisting, while Lauren Gentile and Kelley Mollor have racked up service points. And Cait Classey can dig just about anything around her. All of those players have created a team which is on its way to making a strong run at its first NVL Championship.

Girls' soccer is also in the running for the NVL Title. Steph Negaro and Liz Galla are among the league leaders in goals. Alaine Miele, Amanda Hardy, and Cecelia Dias are making key contributions to the Lady Hawks, as is goalie Erika Howard. The girls notched a big win over Torrington last week, who had beaten them in the first matchup to hand Woodland its only loss thus far. Naugatuck, though, played the Hawks to a scoreless tie to put the Hawks' record at 9-1-1.

We won't forget about Boys' soccer either. They have won 4 of their last 5 matches to improve to 6-6 on the season. One more victory will clinch the Hawks a spot in the Class M State Tournament for the 2nd consecutive season. Jesse Menzies is in on almost every goal for the Hawks, either directly scoring or assisting on the goal. Matt Sherman, though, helped the guys in the overtime win over Kennedy, as he scored the game-winner in the second overtime period.

Alright, so hopefully you are completely caught up now on the world of sports, both at Woodland and around the country. I do my best for you.

STATS OUT.

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