Turning Of The Seasons

I. BASEBALL

October, and the moon is hanging in the twilight sky, a faded object that looks like a scuffed baseball. Autumn, Halloween, the time of year when the white of the baseball gives way to the brown of footballs and the orange of basketballs.

Given that the Yankees are in the World Series, and given that I have decided to ignore any World Series in which the Yankees might win--on the theory that it would only encourage them--I've decided to skip right over the World Series and talk about the Giants' off-season.

Okay, so I will watch the World Series. It is what I do. But I won't be happy if the Yankees win.

In any case, I read today the Giants signed Freddy Sanchez to a two year contract. This pleases me.

To acquire Sanchez, the Giants traded a prospect, Tim Alderson, to the Pirates at the trade deadline this year, looking for a spark of momentum to qualify for the playoffs. Sanchez was injured for much of the final months, and the other acquisition, Ryan Garko, did not set the league on fire. Many people on the message boards at sfgate.com second-guessed the trade. But I liked it, and I like the contract extension, and here is why:

1) when he played, I enjoyed watching his defensive work around second base. Smooth and nimble, with a few nifty grabs. When you score few runs and rely on your pitchers, you should back up those pitchers with as strong a defense as possible;

2) he has shown the ability to use the bat to good effect, with a good average. We need all the hitters we can get;

3) and he is a veteran. Specifically, he is a young veteran, which beats our frequent predilection for the end-of-career veteran.

Here's a toast to the burgeoning hopes of the off-season, with all the possibilities that might unfurl.

II. SOCCER

I watched the first leg of the Houston Dynamo--Seattle Sounders Western Conference semifinals last night. It was a good game, but ended up 0-0. It turns out that the anti-soccer zealots are right when they say that soccer needs more scoring. However, they aren't right about why that is.

For one thing, soccer isn't that much different from football in terms of scoring, just in how much each score is worth. Consider a football game that finishes with a score of 21-7; many games like that would be considered very exciting. But consider how to translate that score into the number of times each team scores: the winner scores three times, the loser scores once. Is that much different from a 3-1 result in soccer?

Okay, so Seattle and Houston failed to score goals. But that isn't to say there were no close calls, no great chances. The two keepers, Pat Onstad and the ever elegant Kasey Keller, had strong games. But there were a few glaring chances that should have found the back of the net. And that is the problem that has haunted US soccer for years, both with the national team and in Major League Soccer: a lack of cold-blooded finishing.

There was quite a bit of clever and exciting build up from either team, especially from Stewart Holden and Freddi Ljungberg on Houston and Seattle respectively. But the teams did not finish. And at times, near the end, the passing degenerated into long, telegraphed kicks that were easily intercepted by the defense.

But the atmosphere itself was outstanding. A crowd of 30000-plus in Seattle, standing and cheering, an electric atmosphere that might have been from out of Europe--not that we necessarily need to emulate Europe, mind you, but still, it's a sign of progress, I suppose.

There is a tradition in Seattle among the core fans, a three block march to the Stadium while holding scarves and banners aloft, that is just fantastic. The Sounders are a very exciting franchise in this, their debut season in Major League Soccer. Honestly, if the current incarnation of the San Jose Earthquakes continues to be blandly mediocre, I could see myself adopting the Sounders, especially with a local rivalry soon to arise when the Portland franchise begins play. I've cleverly arranged to have my friends Peter and Roni move to Seattle, thereby giving me a beachhead in terms of developing a local affiliation with the team, and while living in Montana, Seattle was the closest town for professional sports.

The quality of the soccer, and the quality of the broadcast on ESPN, could be considered a hopeful sign of progress for the MLS. Now if only someone could have scored a damn goal to go with the dramatic saves produced on a couple fine efforts.

Playoff Predictions, Non-Expert Version

One benefit of staying home sick from work, other than the obvious benefit, i.e., not working, is the chance to listen to the Detroit Tigers-Minnesota Twins one game playoff for the American League Central Title. I have no direct allegiance to either team, other than the fact that Vaughn is a Twins fan--which means I am torn between wanting them to do well and not wanting them to do better than the Giants and the A's--so I am able to enjoy the game from a neutral fan's perspective.

There is something nostalgic about listening to this game. It reminds me of the drama of David Halberstam's great book, Summer Of '49, which recounted the excitement of a pennant race between the Yankees and the Red Sox. I feel like I should be sitting on a screened front porch somewhere, a pitcher of lemonade perspiring on a table to my left, reading the newspaper. Of course, I don't have a screened porch, nor do I have a lemonade pitcher, let alone a lemonade pitcher that can read the newspaper.

This is appropriate, of course, because nostalgia is a desire for something that we never had in the first place. I certainly didn't live through the 1949 pennant race firsthand.

Still, baseball playoffs! Huzzah!

In this spirit of huzzah, I present my predictions for the 2009 baseball playoffs. Oh, sure, there are innumerable articles from experts and journalists giving their two cents; what makes my predictions unique is that I make absolutely no attempt to rationalize them. Pure intuition, you see, tapping in to the emotional spirit of sports.

So I have predicted the Twins to beat the Tigers today, which may or may not happen. We're in the late innings, and Detroit leads 3-2. But this is no matter, because the winner faces the Yankees, starting tomorrow.

Without further ado:

American League Divisional Round--Yankees beat Twins/Tigers; Angels beat Red Sox.

National League Divisional Round--Cardinals beat Dodgers; Phillies beat Rockies.

American League Championship Series--Angels beat Yankees.

National League Championship Series--Cardinals beat Phillies.


World Series--Angels beat Cardinals.

Thoughts? Agreement? Disputes? Let me know!

A War Of Words: Sports Fans On The Internet

I'm home sick today, which might have colored my perception of things, but honestly, the world of the comment boards at www.sfgate.com is so weird. And this is just in reference to the comments about the sports articles.

There are a number of insightful comments, valid arguments articulately made, and reasonable discussions. It's just sometimes hard to find them behind the elements of the lunatic fringe. It is strange to see even some opinions that I might agree with couched in extreme terms that make me jump back as if scalded by cooking oil.

There are a few people out there who respond via non sequitur to whatever a particular sports columnist writes, criticizing the author's skills, integrity, personal appearance and eating habits. Strange, and needlessly vicious. A lot of what the readers write is not even based on what is actually in the article to which they are responding; they are finding what they want to find, inventing it if necessary.

Some fans of the Oakland Raiders are a classic example, responding to any criticism of their team with ad hominem attacks. Heaven forbid anyone write anything mildly critical of this dysfunctional, dismal franchise which has produced very little in the way of positive results this year: one win, three losses; a franchise quarterback completing less than half of his passes; star running back injured for 2-4 weeks; a front office which tried to ban former Raider and current TV analyst, Rich Gannon, from a preproduction meeting before a televised game simply because he was a former player who criticized them; and a head coach who may well be prosecuted for assaulting an assistant before the season. Nothing (negative) to see here folks. Shut up.

The us versus them attitude is often a good motivation for a sports franchise, and has actually worked well for the Raiders. It just doesn't work when your team isn't good enough to pull it off with panache and when your owner, a much respected figure, appears to be descending into King Lear-like madness.

Not that sports fans have a monopoly on ridiculous comments. There are a lot of hateful comments from all sorts of perspectives, frustrated people taking advantage of the anonymity of the Internet to scatter vitriol and insults like dandelion seeds. This is one more illustration of why sports are a microcosm of society as a whole.

I'm glad that all these people are paying attention to the news--I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt on this point, that they are paying attention to news beyond the box scores. I just wish they weren't so stupid and used better grammar. It's very depressing. I love sports, but sports do not merit name-calling and anonymous hatred.