There has been so much excitement around here for the last week involving the New York Mets that the other New York baseball team seems to be have been overlooked. Yes, the Yankees won their first playoff game last night, defeating the Kansas City Royals by a score of 6-5. But now they get another day off before resuming their series Monday night. So now that they have played exactly one game in a week, it almost seems like they are coming back from Japan after playing an exhibition game.
Gerrit Cole finally pitched on Saturday. It felt like forever. Photo from the Sporting News.
We got the chance to see Ryan this weekend so it made for a doubly good opportunity to see the Yankees play Game 1. However, though the Yanks won, some of the things Ryan fears about this team popped up during the game. Aaron Judge struck out three times. Gerrit Cole was shaky. Anthony Volpe committed a huge error. Needless to say, the victory did not stir a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings for the boy. I look at it as a Game 1 victory and now they are ready to drop the hammer on the Royals the next two games. But again, it doesn’t even feel like they are part of the playoffs. The Mets and Phillies just finished an instant classic with their Game 2. Meanwhile, the Yankees sit idle once again and now I ask the question. Did they really win last night?
It doesn’t get much better. The Yanks and Royals will get another off day for travel after tomorrow’s game and potentially another one if the series goes five games. This isn’t an MLB playoff series, it feels more like an NBA playoff series. This is supposed to be the most exciting time of the baseball calendar. For a team sharing the same city as the exciting Mets, the Yankees feel like an afterthought.
I must have been on to something. On June 11 of this year, I wrote (you can read here) about the baseball rivalry that I missed. Well, it turns out that I am getting what I wished for. The Kansas City Royals will be taking on the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series after dispatching the Baltimore Orioles in two straight games. With the way baseball is now, it is hard to imagine these two teams meeting in the playoffs four times in five years. However, one thing this series will have in common with the others is that it is a best of five round.
The years were 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1980. The three series that took place in the 70’s were won by the Yankees while the 1980 affair was a Royals’ sweep. Not only were there great players up and down both teams, but each series had at least two memorable moments or games that made this rivalry special. Unfortunately for me, I am not quite old enough to say, “I remember the Chris Chambliss series ending homer” in 1976 or, “Did you see the Nettles-Brett brawl at third base last night?” in 1977. The only memories I have are from 1980 which saw (A) George Steinbrenner leaving in disgust after Willie Randolph got thrown out at home plate in Game 2 and (B) George Brett‘s moonshot off Goose Gossage in Game 3 to finally slay the Yankee dragon. It’s interesting to note is that while the teams largely remained the same through all four series, many big name players missed one or more clashes. Reggie Jackson didn’t get to the Yankees until 1977, Goose Gossage in 1978. Ron Guidry didn’t pitch in 1976 while Willie Wilson was a bit player in 1977. Dan Quisenberry did not get into the KC bullpen until 1980. Tragically, Thurman Munson did not live to 1980.
Maybe because of color TV and better sound quality, watching highlights from that era doesn’t seem that far removed. However, when you look at the years and then do the math, you realize that their first meeting was 48 YEARS AGO! Who are this year’s comparable players? Bobby Witt is George Brett. Aaron Judge is Thurman Munson. Juan Soto is Reggie Jackson. Seth Lugo is Dennis Leonard. Will this year’s games match the intensity from another era? Tune in for a rivalry renewed, 44 years in the making.
If it’s a Sunday in September, then you know it’s an important day on the baseball calendar. It is September 29, so it is the final day of the regular season. The final two playoff positions come down to three different teams so it will be indeed a wild day. Two of our three teams, the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies are comfortably in the playoffs. The third team, the New York Mets, are limping into Game 162 as one of those three teams fighting for the last two postseason berths. What most likely awaits them is a trip on Monday to visit one of the other teams they are fighting and the team both Caitlyn and Matthew can’t stand: the Atlanta Braves.
Matt Olson and the Atlanta Braves: Public Enemy #1. Photo from Sports Illustrated
Yes, the Braves. I don’t think there is a Mets’ fan in the world that believes the trip down south is going to end well. It seems like forever that the Braves have continually haunted the Mets. Even Matthew, despite being 13, knows the scars. After all, it was 2022 when the Mets needed to win only one game in Atlanta to win the National League East. Instead they were swept and then proceeded to lose the Wild Card Series against the San Diego Padres. It was earlier this week when Atlanta’s Spencer Schwellenbach sent New York into a possible, fatal tailspin by throwing seven innings of one run ball. In 2022, Matthew actually went to Game 3 of that Wild Card round and though that was a bitter loss, the constant pounding of the Mets by the Braves has worn the kid down.
As for Caitlyn, you would think she looks down on Atlanta. The Phillies have beaten down the Braves in both the 2022 and 2023 divisional round. I actually think she dislikes them even more than Matthew does. Perhaps it starts with the fact that despite beating the Braves that last two years in the playoffs, Atlanta has finished ahead of them in the division. There is also Marcell Ozuna whose checkered history includes a battery and aggravated assault charge for allegedly hitting his wife as well as his DUI arrest. Of course, the Braves also employ Orlando Arcia, the man who, after Game 2 of last year’s NLDS mocked Bryce Harper with the immortal phrase, “atta boy Harper’. I do believe she is nervous about potentially facing that team a third consecutive season in the playoffs, all the more reason for her dislike towards them.
As for Ryan, the Braves mean nothing to him. There is no Yankees-Braves rivalry until they potentially meet in the World Series. But since his brother and sister don’t like them, he is not a fan, either. A Lynch nightmare scenario does exist in 2024. The Braves can prevent the Mets from making the playoffs, beat the Phillies in the National League playoffs and beat the Yankees in the World Series. If that scenario plays out, the Lynch family won’t be taking a road trip to Atlanta any time soon.
Well, that game stunk. Matthew lost faith quickly and though I tried to be positive, the effort seemed futile. The New York Mets dropped the first game of their critical three game series against the Atlanta Braves by a score of 5-1. Luis Severino did not have it, pitching with traffic all game and surrendering four runs in four innings. At one point, Mathew called him a bum, an understandable but clear overreaction to a guy who has given the Mets plenty of solid outings in 2024. With five games to go and the playoffs not a guarantee, can the Mets rebound one last time in 2024?
Carlos Mendoza will not let the team be the same old Mets. Photo from NY Post
Despite being one game in front of the Braves, New York faces a daunting five days. First, they must find a way to beat the best pitcher in baseball on Wednesday. Chris Sale is 18-3 and on his way to the National League Cy Young Award. He faced the Mets once already this season, on July 25, pitching 7 1/3 innings and allowing two runs. The Mets would win in 10 innings by a score of 3-2. He has pitched 24 innings in September and has allowed only three earned runs. Yikes. If the Amazins’ can’t win on Wednesday, they will be tied with Atlanta going into Thursday’s game which, if the weather holds true, will be rained out. So that means they will be tied with the Braves heading into a weekend series in Milwaukee against the Central Division champion Brewers. Meanwhile, Atlanta gets to host the free-falling Kansas City Royals. If the two teams are tied for the final spot after Sunday, guess what? Game 163 against one another with a second showdown in five days with Chris Sale. Not appetizing to say the least.
If this is truly not the same old Mets, the Mets that would have been buried by July 1, then they will find a way to beat Chris Sale and the Braves to go back up by two games. Nothing about 2024 has screamed LOL Mets. At 11 games back they rallied, after the brutal loss on that August Sunday in San Diego, they dusted themselves off and kept winning. Even the recent injury to MVP candidate Francisco Lindor hasn’t slowed them down. However, should they fall short of the playoffs, this season will almost feel like a waste. It really would be the same old, LOL, lovable loser Mets. That’s not happening. I feel like the page truly has been turned for the organization with an owner that will spend money and stability at the top of the front office.
Prediction for Wednesday, September 25: New York Mets 6 Atlanta Braves 3
The New York Yankees are playing a series in the Oakland Coliseum against the A’s for the last time in the Bay Area. After the 2024 season, the A’s will begin the process of moving to Las Vegas by first, stopping in Sacramento for the next three years. By the time the organization plays a regular season game in Vegas, we will again be talking about a Presidential election. The move represents the first time in 20 years that a Major League Baseball team changes addresses, the last being the Montreal Expos morphing into the Washington Nationals. This is a sad chapter in the history of baseball as MLB officials presided over an ownership group that treated Oakland like second rate citizens. With bitter feelings still present, I would like my kids, and everyone else, to understand that although the A’s did not have the best of ownership in Oakland, they certainly were one of the premier organizations for much of the last 50 years.
The one and only Rickey Henderson. Photo from ESPN.
Disclaimer: This isn’t the first time the A’s have been on the move. They were born in Philadelphia in 1901 and left for Kansas City after the 1954 season. They lasted only 13 years in KC before moving further west . For the purposes of this post, I will stick to the organization’s time to Oakland. Their time in Philadelphia featured some of the biggest names in MLB history such as Jimmie Foxx, Frank “Home Run” Baker and Al Simmons. But that is for another day.
Where to begin? How about a little secret? You have been regaled endlessly about the tales of the 1977-78 Yankees. I know you have heard the name, “Big Red Machine” when referring to the 1970’s Cincinnati Reds. Neither was the team of the decade. It was the A’s. In fact, from 1972-1974, Oakland accomplished what no other organization in the 120 plus years of the World Series has done with the exception of the Yankees: win three consecutive championships. One of those titles came against the Big Red Machine, and they won it without Reggie Jackson, the team’s best player and future Hall of Famer. They won five consecutive AL West championships and very nearly had a sixth in 1976. Because of owner Charlie Finley’s insistence on not paying his players as well as wanting to sell them for cash, a bizarre set of circumstances left Oakland without Rollie Fingers, Joe Rudi and Vida Blue for 12 games. They went 7-5 during that time and missed the division title by only 2.5 games.
Fast forward about a decade later and a new era of winning baseball took place for the organization . The A’s would win the 1989 World Series, and three consecutive pennants from 1988-1990. Since then, no other team besides the Yankees (who else?) has won three straight pennants. In fact, when the Yankees were winning three straight World Series titles from 1998-2000, the team that gave them the hardest time was the 2000 A’s. Though the club has not won it all since 1989, they certainly have had their fair share of winning teams. From 2000-2006, Oakland made the playoffs four times while the other two seasons produced 91 and 88 victories, a pair of second place finishes. Later on, they twice made three consecutive playoff appearance, first from 2012-2014 and then from 2018-2020. All of this success throughout the years has come despite chronically low payrolls courtesy of the various ownership groups that have owned the team at different times.
The success of the A’s because of their low payrolls caught the attention of best selling author Michael Lewis. He wrote a great book on those early 2000’s A’s titled, Moneyball. The book was later turned into a movie starring Brad Pitt. It focused on the use of analytics and how the organization, specifically General Manager Billy Beane, would use them to apply unconventional methods to secure talent and win games despite having one of the lowest payrolls in the game. Speaking of true stories, MLB Network has done their fair share of documentaries on the club and its players, beginning with The Swinging A’s, which chronicled their 70’s glory days. Reggie Jackson. Dennis Eckersley. Rickey Henderson. Billy Martin. All of them may have played and managed (in Martin’s case) in other locales but a significant part of each of their careers came in Oakland. Here’s another little tidbit: Reggie won more championships (and an MVP) with the A’s than the Yankees.
And so a glorious, and sometimes frustrating era in baseball history comes to a close. The green and gold uniforms will look out of place in the desert. Although I missed the early 70’s dynasty, I am glad I got to see the A’s celebrate a World Series title. From their time in the Bay Area until now, only the Yankees (again) have won more World Series titles than the A’s. (The Red Sox and Cardinals have also won four over that time). I hope that thousands of future baseball fans will read up on those great teams that called Oakland home.
Trade deadline, trade deadline went. Too much to analyze even for me. The results won’t be fully known for a couple of years, given the number of prospects that were moved and the final pitch of the 2024 season over three months away. One team that made a flurry of moves in an attempt to finally get to the World Series was the San Diego Padres. As I glanced at my phone to see the update that the Padres acquired Tanner Scott, I thought, “Wow, way to go for it”. And then, it hit me.
I have been so wrong about A.J. Preller. He’s done a good job. Photo from San Diego Magazine
I need to give A.J. Preller, the chief baseball guy in San Diego, a lot of credit.
My kids and friends will tell you that for years, I have always thought Preller’s decisions were overrated. Year after year, we would hear how the Padres won the offseason and that they were poised for bigger things. Year after year they would disappoint experts and more importantly, their fans. Then, in 2022, after acquiring Juan Soto and Josh Bell, they finally broke through and made the National League Championship Series. In the following offseason, they added Xander Bogarts and got Fernando Tatis, Jr back from suspension. Yet, the Padres flopped and missed the playoffs in 2023. Before the 2024 campaign started, they traded Soto and lost Cy Young winner Blake Snell to free agency. Despite the misfortune, San Diego has been in prime playoff position all season. I’ve come to the realization that Preller has done an excellent job keeping his team relevant and consistently drafting well, allowing him to make bold trades like the ones orchestrated at this year’s trading deadline. For a good portion of my baseball life the Padres have been a below average franchise. With Preller at the helm, San Diego (with ownership’s commitment to higher payrolls), is becoming a more desirable place to play.
It is not easy to admit you are wrong. Once in a while, I was guilty of rooting against the San Diego Padres just to show people I was right. That was foolish of me. I should have respected the work A.J. Preller put in to making the Padres a good baseball organization. I won’t let that happen again. Hats off to A.J. Preller and I hope he sticks around to lead San Diego for another ten years.
I am a firm believer, or at least have the perception, that sports were were better when we were younger. Maybe it’s because we had less responsibilities. Maybe it’s because the world was less chaotic. I don’t think I am the only one that feels this way. How many times growing up did we hear our parents say things were better when they were kids? That being said, I always try to conceptualize that instead of saying sports were better when I was younger, I like to say they have evolved. However, I still miss certain things about my baseball childhood.
Chris Chambliss breaks the Royals’ hearts in 1976. Photo from Newsday
This brings me to the rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals, who play each other four times in Kansas City this week.
Growing up, I didn’t look at the Boston Red Sox as the Yanks’ biggest rivals. The Yankees and Royals to me was much more intense. New York and Kansas City played each other in the American League Champions Series four out of five years. Though I was too young to actually remember the first three, I knew that whenever they played one another, it was a big deal. Some of their regular season games were on national television. The 1976-1978 ALCS were loaded with memorable highlights such as Chris Chambliss’s series clinching home run at Yankee Stadium in ’76 and the brawl in Kansas City one year later. One of my earliest memories was the 1980 ALCS when the Royals finally slayed the Yankee dragon and advanced to the World Series. I distinctly remember going to bed with the Yankees winning game three only to wake up and find out George Brett smacked a three run homer to give KC the series. To add more gas to the fire, Dick Howser was the Yankee manager in 1980. He was fired by George Steinbrenner after that season and became the Royals’ manager the following season. Howser got the Royals over the hump once and for all in 1985, directing the team to its first World Championship. Of course, who can forget the most famous moment of all in this epic rivalry? That would be Brett’s Pine Tar home run in 1983, that was first disallowed and then allowed less than a month later.
For one of the rare instances over the last 30 years, both teams are playoff contenders at the same time. One big difference between all of those epic clashes years ago and today is the size of the payrolls. In its heyday, there was no talk of big market-small market and luxury taxes. It was just two well-run organizations vying for American League supremacy. I’d love nothing more than to see the Yankees and Royals meet once again this Fall for the right to go to the World Series.
Look at the 2023 Major League Baseball standings and turn slowly toward the order of the American League Central. The Minnesota Twins, the only team to finish over .500, captured the division crown with a mere 87 victories. The Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals each lost more than 100 games. In 2022, the Cleveland Guardians were the only club to finish over .500, winning 92 games. The division has long been derided for its lack of quality teams year in and year out.
Seth Lugo is the ace of the revitalized Kansas City Royals. Photo from Yahoo
Now?
The AL Central is the only division to have three teams with at least 30 victories. The Guardians are #1 and the Royals #2 in runs scored in the American League. Kansas City has been particularly impressive, stockpiling a group of veteran pitchers such as Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha to supplement their young, positional core, headed by Bobby Witt, Jr. Salvador Perez is as good as he was nine years ago when the Royals won it all. If Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton can remain healthy for the remainder of the year, the Twins’ lineup will give pitchers headaches all season. On the pitching side, Jhoan Duran is one of the most electric closers in baseball. Despite losing one of the best managers in Terry Francona, Cleveland has thrived under first time manager Stephen Vogt. More help will arrive for the Guardians in the near future as they own the #1 pick in July’s draft. The Detroit Tigers, though one game under .500, remain dangerous with two studs in the rotation: Reese Olson and Tarik Skubal. Only the White Sox will not figure into this discussion this year and next as they are literally starting from scratch.
The top four teams are set up for success beyond 2024. The vast majority of core players, both in the everyday lineup and on the mound are south of 30. The Baltimore Orioles receive much fanfare for their impressive collection of young talent. Teams like the Guardians and Royals do not have the names but they are just as prolific. The organizations in the AL Central generally are of smaller markets with lower payrolls. Drafting wisely and being smart in free agency is a must for the group, lest they revert to being nicknamed “Comedy Central”.
Once upon a time, I was the editor of Venom Strikes, a blog dedicated to the Arizona Diamondbacks. It’s true. Just Google, “Tom Lynch Venom Strikes” and you can link to one of my articles like this. When I tell people that I am a huge baseball fan and that I once blogged about the Diamondbacks, inevitably they want to know how a Yankees fan in New York became a writer for the Snakes. The answer is I was asked and so I obliged. That makes me one of the only people in the tristate area that has a rooting interest in the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Corbin Carroll has lately been showing off his All Star form. Photo from NBC News
But that’s not what this entry is about.
The D’backs are the defending National League champions yet have had an uneven start to this season, to say the least. They sit at 20-22, too early to panic but fair to wonder if they can make the playoffs. It has been one of the those seasons where pieces have been missing or underperforming. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. started off on fire while Corbin Carroll was in a major slump. Now, Carroll has seemingly turned the corner and Gurriel is batting .235. Jordan Montgomery arrived just as Merrill Kelly got hurt. Eduardo Rodriguez hasn’t pitched yet. Paul Sewald recently returned and Kevin Ginkel has not been the playoff Kevin Ginkel. On the bright side, Joc Pederson has been a solid addition and Ketel Marte is looking like Top 5 MVP Ketel Marte.
Remember, Arizona finished the 2023 season with an 84-78 record. It won’t take much effort to reach that number this season but it may not be good enough for the playoffs in 2024. In order to reach their full potential of being a 90 win, postseason team, the yo-yoing needs to stop and the killer instinct that was on display during that October series in Philadelphia needs to return by the end of the month.
Last week, the Oakland A’s announced that this will be their final season in the Bay Area. The team will play for three years in Sacramento (in a Minor League park, no less) until their new stadium is ready in Las Vegas starting with the 2028 season. Thus ends an era in Major League Baseball equally defined in excellence and incompetence. The result of the move out of Oakland and into Las Vegas represents an enormous failure, and perhaps even bigger, an utter contempt for a fanbase.
The great Reggie Jackson in Oakland. Photo from andscape.com
Let’s get one undeniable truth out of the way. If it was New York or Boston or Los Angeles or St. Louis, there is no way this happens. Those cities are considered baseball royalty with legacies of winning and rabid fan bases. Major League Baseball would not abandon those areas at any cost. They would have insisted that ownership work out a deal with their respective municipalities to keep those franchises where they belong. Oakland? It’s a more of a working class area whose perception (wrongly) is that of the “second” team in the Bay Area. It doesn’t have the celebrity following that the Yankees and the Dodgers and the Red Sox possess. And we know how important celebrities are to the folks that occupy the Commissioner’s Office. Going to Las Vegas raises the “cool” factor of baseball, with the A’s going from the “dreary” Oakland Coliseum to the bright lights of the Strip.
You know what the A’s DO have a history of: winning.
Since the franchise relocated from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968, the A’s have a nearly unmatched record in capturing World Series championships. Their four titles are only exceeded by the Yankees and equal to the amount of the Red Sox. No other club has more than three. Speaking of three, the Oakland A’s are the only team not named the Yankees to have captured three consecutive World Series titles in the over 100 year existence of the Fall Classic. They have appeared in a total of six World Series since the move to Oakland. In 1972, when playing the famed Big Red Machine from Cincinnati, the A’s won the championship without their best player, Reggie Jackson. Think about that. Oakland won a title against a legendary team without their Hall of Famer for any of the seven games. Find another instance of a franchise becoming a champion without their best player.
As for those players? MLB Network thought enough of the greatness of the teams from the 1970’s to make a documentary, but they also produced specials on three players with significant Oakland connections: Jackson, Rickey Henderson and Dennis Eckersley. Jackson was one of the great sluggers of all time, Henderson was the most dynamic player of his generation and Eckersley was virtually unhittable as a closer. Other Hall of Famers that called Oakland home include Rollie Fingers and Jim “Catfish” Hunter. Though not in Cooperstown, Dave Stewart accomplished something that may not happen again: winning at least 20 games in four consecutive seasons. From Joe Rudi and Vida Blue to Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Mark Mulder to Matt Olson and Marcus Semien, the A’s have enjoyed rosters full of superstars that somehow go almost unnoticed by much of the baseball media. If this franchise stayed in Philadelphia all those years ago or moved to Los Angeles before the Dodgers, they would be recognized as baseball royalty.
How about this? The name “Athletics” or “A’s” needs to stay in Oakland. Current ownership does not deserve to take any bit of this all time franchise east to Las Vegas. Let him make his own history somewhere else. The A’s belong in Oakland and maybe, just maybe, the next commissioner will recognize that it is a tremendous baseball town with a rich history.
Threeunassisted 