Geoff Baker, previewing "a so-so way to kill three hours of tube time until Saturday Night Live kicks in," correctly says that MLB, Fox and most fans are disappointed with the Series matchup. I'd link to the piece, but again, I can't find it on waymoresports.com, only in my Saturday Star. Baker also calls the Fish in five, which I think is preposterous. His reasoning is that David Wells will be tired after his inning of relief the other night, Andy Pettitte "got smoked in Game 6," and Mariano Rivera is "fried." He also likes the Marlins' "younger, fresher-looking bats." Sorry, Geoff. The older, gnarled bats in the hands of experienced champions will prevail.
I think Boomer, to borrow an advertising slogan, lives for this. The chances that he'll be outpitched by Brad Penny tonight are extremely remote; I'd say "slim and none," but it doesn't sound right, talking about David. It looks like McKeon is going with Redman (who just got "smoked" himself) tomorrow, and saving Beckett for Tuesday. Maybe that's just a "lefty at the Stadium" decision, but to me, it also hints that young Josh didn't bounce back well from his strenuous "side session" against live, desperate hitters. Even if Beckett is 100%, has as much success against the potent Yanks as he did against the anemic Cubs, and wins Game 3, that leaves the D-Train (at this point, it stands for "derailed") against the Rocket's final farewell performance in Game 4. A Yankees sweep wouldn't surprise me in the least, but I'll say it goes five.
Elsewhere in the Star, Richard Griffin picks the Yanks in six. His positional breakdown gives the edge to the Marlins at catcher and in overall defence. I can't argue with that, though Pudge's advantage over Posada is hardly as pronounced as it was over the platoon of Miller and Bako. At the plate and on the mound, I agree that the Yankees are superior. The stellar New York rotation and Rivera, compared to Beckett, finger-crossing and Urbina, is a mismatch. Middle relief is a black hole for both teams; Pavano and Contreras figure to get some key innings, but which club's starters figure to go deeper into these games? The offensive philosophies are different; the Fish have more guys who can annoy you, but the Yankees have more guys who can hurt you, and will score plenty of runs off the inferior Florida pitching.
Griff also gets it exactly right in his column, where he echoes my sentiments that George Steinbrenner is a lovely man, compared to Jeffrey Loria.
Think about if Loria had spent that same amount of money in Montreal as he did this year (he had the same GM, Larry Beinfest), adding key players to the already existing, deep talent-pool, the likes of Jose Vidro and Vladimir Guerrero, Expos fans would have flocked back to Stade Olympique like they did in south Florida this October. But, he never wanted baseball to regain its hold. He would have had to stay. That's not what a carpetbagger does.
Right on, Rich. Imagine Pudge behind the plate and in the middle of that lineup, with Urbina bolstering the bullpen -- we'd all be cheering for the Expos right now, and scrambling for tickets. Loria is the biggest villain in baseball, and no matter how you feel about Steinbrenner, he's a hero by comparison.
You're invited to post your predictions here. "I don't care" and "I'm not watching" are valid positions. I don't really care, other than hating Loria's guts and believing in the AL's superiority, but with only a few baseball games remaining until the long, cold, dark offseason, you can bet that I'll be watching.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20031018013259999