Thursday, October 16, 2003
OH, BOO-HOO
The subject heading of Lee Sinins latest report, "National Disgrace", made me think it was going to be about the horrible blame placed on the poor young man who got in Moises Alou's way yesterday. No such luck.
The Marlins have pulled off another national disgrace, winning the NL pennant. Over spending 162 games proving themselves not to be the best team of 5, it is nothing but a tribute to the small sample size garbage of October that they can call themselves the best of 16.Oh, and like the 88-74 Cubs were any more deserving.
I'm not a fan of the Wild Card (although I must admit I do enjoy the extra round of playoffs), but it's here. The Marlins at least had a better record than the Cubs, who were far and away the worst of all the 8 playoff teams.
Don't believe me?
Yankees 101-61 [ExW-L 97-65]
Braves 101-61 [ExW-L 97-65]
Giants 100-62 [ExW-L 94-67]
Atheletics 96-66 [ExW-L 95-67]
Bosox 95-67 [ExW-L 95-67]
Twins 90-72 [ExW-L 85-77]
Cubs 88-74 [ExW-L 86-76]
If you ask me, the tragedy isn't that the Marlins are going to the World Series, but that the otherwise sentimental favourites Cubbies even got within sniffing distance while statistically superior clubs like the Mariners, Phillies, and Astros (fire Jimy Williams!) had to spend their Octobers at home. (Heck, the third place Blue Jays were a better team than the Cubs in ExW-L, and only a single win behind in the real standings.) At least the Twins knew their role and allowed themselves to be promptly dispatched by the Yankees.
And, hell, the Marlins were the best team in baseball after McKeon took the helm in May. So screw your sample size whinings.
If the Marlins going to the World Series is a "National Disgrace", I don't know what Lee will say if the Red Sox win tomorrow. He hasn't left himself much wiggle room to top his outrage at an All Wild Card World Series.
