Waiting is the Hardest Part

Featured — By Scott Ham on October 5, 2009 2:49 pm

Random thoughts while recovering from the spate of illnesses to attack my household…

•  If you’re a basebal fan, especially a Yankee fan, October has to be your favorite time of year.

Except these two days.

I’m not much of a football fan, but if I was, the two weeks between the conference championships and the Super Bowl would destroy me.  I guess I should consider myself fortunate that there are only two off days between the end of the season and the start of the playoffs.  It could be worse.

But, man. What a long two days this is going to be.

•  Speaking of the next two days, Tuesday’s tiebreaker between the Twins and the Tigers marks the third such game in as many years.  There could have been one in the AL East in 2005, but the second place team would have clinched the wild card, so they used head to head records to determine the East winner.

I wasn’t a big fan of the wild card when it first started in 1995, despite the fact that it got the Yankees into the playoffs for the first time since 1981.  And even now, despite some great games involving wild card teams, I’m still not thrilled, mainly because of the best of five format it created in the ALDS.

Sure, the best team should be able to win in five games, but baseball doesn’t always work that way.  Maybe that should be the charm of a short round of playoff games: the chance that a darkhorse team and get some flash in the pan starting pitching and topples a favorite.

That’s not how the sport is constructed, though.  We spend six months following a team through a 162 game schedule, double that of any other professional sport.  Then, after that marathon of a season, fate is left in the hands of a shortened playoff series?

The problem is, the World Series is already scheduled to run into November, with game 7 slotted on November 5th.  How much further can you go?

•  Some people have used ARod’s 2 home run 7 RBI performance yesterday as reason to rip him a bit.

I’m not going to tell you that you should like ARod. Heck, I won’t ask you to root for him, even if you are a Yankee fan.

But let’s not fabricate more reasons to dislike ARod.  He’s given us plenty of fodder over the years.  There’s little reason to start making things up.

It was somewhat magical, unbelievable really, that Rodriguez managed to not only hit two home runs yesterday, but gather 7 RBIs as well, bringing his season total to 30 home runs and 100 RBI.  Those numbers have long been the magical dividing line between a good season and a great season.

In ARod’s case, it meant twelve straight seasons of at least 30 home runs and 100 RBI.  Oh, he also broke the AL record for RBI in an inning with 7 and tied Mark McGwire for eighth on the all-time home run list.

Of course, they came in a meaningless game, so ARod should be derided for doing his job when the game had no bearing on the standings.

That approach is simply absurd.

This reasoning creates a no win situation or ARod.  If he makes an out, he’s unclutch and struggling going into the postseason.  If he hits a home run, he’s a stat padder.

Meanwhile, ARod is just doing his job and doing it pretty well.  It’s the people who are looking for reason to criticize ARod that are creating this ridiculous scenario.

I have never had a lot of respect for ARod and the events surrounding his steroid admission this past spring didn’t help.  I have to give the man credit, however.  He’s spent the majority of this season out of the spotlight.  He’s used his time to try and fix the damage his steroid usage may have created by speaking to groups of kids throughout the country about why he was wrong.

In short, he’s done everything he should have done and more.

You don’t have to like him.  You don’t have to respect him.  But give him credit for trying to do what’s right.