From the cheap seats
Who could have predicted this? The final four teams in the 2002 Major League Baseball season are the Anaheim Angels, Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.
I’m upset that the Atlanta Braves lost. They were just outplayed by the Giants (especially their defense). The one thing I don’t understand about game five of the National League Division Series is the late pitching decision by Bobby Cox.
Cox took out Kevin Millwood after the fifth inning. I totally agreed with
this move. He brought in Chris Hammond, who did a great job in the sixth. Naturally I thought that the next pitcher would be Darren Holmes, Kevin Gryboski, Kerry Ligtenberg,, or Damian Moss. I thought it would be someone to set up Mike Remlinger in the eighth and then John Smoltz in the ninth.
Cox brought in Remlinger after Hammond. To an ordinary baseball fan or anyone who could care less, this was a meaningless move. But to me, this move was very significant.
For most of the 2002 year the Braves’ formula had always been one or two pitchers after a starter, Remlinger in the eighth and Smoltz in the ninth. Even though the Braves were trailing by the seventh inning, I still thought that Cox would follow the formula during this pivotal game. But he didn’t, instead he went with Remlinger in the seventh, and he gave up a double and walked two Giants before Cox replaced him with Holmes, who did the best he could to get out of the bases-loaded jam.
Cox will have the next few months to think about that game, and I do not envy him.
As for the rest of the playoffs, I’m totally psyched. It’s a whole new cast of teams.
The series between the Angels and Twins has been called the ‘Cinderella Series.’ This name is very appropriate for many reasons.
The Twins came back from the brink of extinction, literally. Before the beginning of the 2002 season, the Twins were to be contracted, and the players to be drafted by the remaining major league teams.
The Angels have ridden the back of their fairy god-monkey. For those of you who don’t know, earlier this year the Angels came up with a prop much like the tomahawks of the Braves or the homer hankies of the Twins. They came up with a rally monkey.
The monkey appears on the screen, when the Angels are behind, and then they’ll somehow make a comeback and win. The rally monkey has been effective so far.
After 20 games of the regular season the Angels record was 6-14. Recently, the Angels found themselves trailing in all of the Divisional Series games with the New York Yankees, but somehow came back and knocked off the 4-time defending American League Champions.
It is refreshing to see a new American League Champion after the Yankees have dominated for such a long time.
The Giants and Cardinals series should be interesting. It will be intriguing to see how Cardinals head coach Tony Larussa pitches (or not) to Giants slugger Barry Bonds.
It will also be interesting to see how the Giants pitching keeps the heavy offense of the Cards in check.
Either way, the World Series could be exciting just because nobody has a real edge. Can Bonds knock out a few Cardinals with the long ball, or will he just hear the inevitable boo’s that comes when he’s walked?
Will the Angels be able to rally against the scrappy Twins, or will the Twins get the monkey off their back?
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 11 2002. Filed under Opinion.
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