Baseball 2007

Here we are, just days away from the start of another baseball season. I have to say I was super excited about the upcoming season... a month ago when spring training started. Now I am just neurotic. Watching your team go through its worst Grapefruit League season in franchise history will do that to you. Of course, I do know these games don't count, but right now I have to convince myself that we're better than this. We are better than this, we are better than this... sorry, I was getting off track there...

By "we", I of course refer to my New York Mets, defending champions of the National League East, and almost-champions of the National League but for Yadier F*@#ing Molina and a home run ball that even Endy Chavez couldn't catch. Hopes were high going into spring training that this was going to be just like 1986 all over again; last year we knocked at the door only to have the Cardinals stop us, and this year we kick the door down. There were questions about the starting pitching, but we seemed pretty set elsewhere. Since then, the starting pitching has actually rounded itself out quite nicely; John Maine, Oliver Perez, and Mike Pelfrey have been shaky at times but overall pretty solid, especially the last two in that group.

The bullpen, our pride and joy, has undergone some changes but looks pretty good. We still have Billy Wagner, but Aaron Heilman (the pitcher who gave up the Molina homer) is going to have to setup again, and he has elbow tendinitis. Duaner Sanchez is out until August with lingering effects from his car accident last year. With Chad Bradford gone, rookie Joe Smith joins Pedro Feliciano as our righty/lefty tag team, and that's in good shape. Scott Schoenweis is a solid addition to the pen. Other than that... I have no freakin' clue who else could come out of our bullpen and be effective. Jon Adkins, who we got from San Diego in an offseason deal, has been horrible. They started him for some reason today against the Braves... after 1/2 inning, 5-0 Atlanta. Chan Ho Park was brought in to challenge for the 5th starter job. When he failed miserably at that, they decided to try him in the pen... and he promptly blew a 2-run lead the other night. And the rest of those vying for these last couple spots all have unfamiliar names and spring ERAs hovering around 9. This more than anything is why we sport a 10-20 preseason record.

The lineup has some holes as well. Shawn Green and free-agent acquisition Moises Alou are both showing their age, and it may not be long before Lastings Milledge is starting in at least a platoon role. And then there's the decision to move David Wright to SECOND in the batting order. Here's someone who knocked in well over 100 runs last year, and you're taking away his chance to do that. His fantasy value PLUMMETED with this move, and the jury is out on whether this will translate into big early leads with a shaky Alou and Green now hitting behind Carlos Delgado instead of Wright.

Now to the rest of baseball... and we start in the Mets' division, the NL East. Jimmy Rollins popped off to the media and declared that the Phillies were the team to beat in the division. Oh, that's so cute, Jimmy... you actually think you have a CHANCE. That became bulletin board material for the Mets for the entire season. Sure the Mets appear to have their flaws, but there were question marks last year as well. The Mets win the East by 10 games again. PERIOD. The Phillies do have an exciting young team, but where the Mets have solid veteran leaders like Delgado, Carlos Beltran, and Paul LoDuca, the Phillies have... a sulking Pat Burrell. The Braves are not who they used to be, and they lost more than they gained in the offseason. They will battle Florida for 3rd, and if former Mets coach Manny Acta does a better-than-expected job in Washington, it could be a 3-way race to avoid the cellar in the East.

The National League Central is exciting, because on paper, everyone has a chance in this division... except the Pirates. Sorry, Pittsburgh. The Cardinals did win it all last year... but they also won only 83 games in the regular season. The Cards will need more offense around Albert Pujols, including a healthy Scott Rolen, and their pitching is shaky after Chris Carpenter. The Cubs are right back in it this year after finishing last in '06. Adding Lou Piniella as manager and then getting Alfonso Soriano and re-signing Aramis Ramirez were bold moves. The pitching is thin after Carlos Zambrano, however. Milwaukee has a great young nucleus forming with Bill Hall, Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, and Kevin Mench. If Ben Sheets stays healthy, he joins Chris Capuano and Dave Bush in a decent rotation, plus Francisco Cordero (acquired from Texas with Mench for Carlos Lee) is a lights-out closer. Speaking of Lee, he's now in Houston, and with him and Berkman together in the lineup, the Astros might finally have an offense befitting their homer-friendly ballpark. They'll need it with a pitching staff that will miss the departed Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens and will hold its breath every time Brad Lidge comes in to close. Cincinnati looks pretty good as well with Adam Dunn and Brandon Phillips leading the way. The Pirates are a year away from contending at this point. They acquired Adam LaRoche from Atlanta in a virtual steal, and when Freddy Sanchez returns from his knee problems, Jason Bay will have a solid lineup surrounding him. The pitching is young and questionable, and that dooms them to the cellar again. If they can keep this team together a couple years, good things can happen, although that does require Pittsburgh to SPEND MONEY.

Over in the West, it's the Dodgers' pennant to lose. They have the horses, but the horses have to stay healthy (especially Nomar and Brad Penny). The D-Backs have Brandon Webb, an aging Randy Johnson, and some good young hitters, but I just don't see them contending. The Padres will try to win their 3rd straight NL West with 40-somethings Greg Maddux and David Wells backing up Jake Peavy in the rotation and continued good things from Adrian Gonzalez and Mike Cameron, but they fall short. Colorado has an explosive young lineup with Garrett Atkins, Matt Holliday, and Brad Hawpe... but it's Colorado so naturally they have no pitching. The Giants will finish dead-last in a rebuilding year where the only drama will be whether or not the fans will boo if Barry Bonds hits #756 on the road.

I'm a National League guy, so I spend more time on them than the AL. I'll run you through the Junior Circuit quickly... in the East, the Yankees and Red Sox will battle to the wire again with their sky-high payrolls and their prominent Japanese pitching additions. Toronto again is relegated to 3rd but they could contend well into September. Tampa Bay continues to improve, and this may be the year Baltimore loses 100 games and the last 10 Orioles fans decide to give up until Peter Angelos is gone.

In the Central, Detroit is even better than last year with their young pitchers boasting more experience and the addition of Gary Sheffield. Minnesota will be there at the end if they can find a new 2nd to Johann Santana while Francisco Liriano sits out the year. Chicago is shaky; they got a lot of career years from their offense last year and their pitching faded in the 2nd half. Cleveland could have a bounce-back year if they get a bounce-back year from C.C. Sabathia and a healthy Cliff Lee. Kansas City... still has a major league franchise. That's about all I can say that's good about them.

In the West, Seattle could turn some heads and win the division. If there's a trendy darkhorse to pick this year, it's the Mariners with Jeff Weaver and Felix Hernandez in the rotation and a veteran lineup. The Angels, Oakland, and Texas all could have good years and win the flag as well, but the Angels and A's have star pitchers trying to rebound from injuries (Bartolo Colon and Rich Harden), and Texas needs Hank Blalock to return to form to join Texeira and Young to form a good hitting attack.

As for the postseason... well I'd like to say the Mets will win it all, but I'm too busy repeating my mantra right now... we're better than this... we're better than this...

I'll check back with you in October.

Not the Madness I Was Hoping For

The NCAA Tournament is upon us and normally for those of us here in Syracuse, that means cheering on our beloved Orange as they play for that trip to the F**** F***... yeah, I can't say that one either because of the copyright issues. Just like the S**** B***. Anyway, with 22 wins and a 10-6 record in the Big East, it was presumed that the city would be all decked out in orange once again for another championship run.

Instead, we're not exactly orange right now, more like red... as in seeing red. The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, who I'm convinced must be comprised of the same people who keep voting for Sanjaya on "American Idol", chose to keep us out of the 65-team field this year. Now all the statistical comparisons and the whys and hows for the Orange not making the tournament have been repeated ad nauseum various other places, so I won't talk about it at all here. Suffice to say, we got screwed, and most of the country agrees. Not that we did ourselves any favors when we went out there last night and promptly almost lost to SOUTH ALABAMA in the first round of the NIT. However, the love that came down from the 17,000 SU fans at the Dome last night was nothing short of awe-inspiring. Yes our fan base has its share of people who expect dominance every year and trash our Hall of Fame coach when it doesn't happen (we call them "trolls"), but for the most part, we're good people.

So on to the 65 teams not called Syracuse who actually are playing in this year's NCAA Tournament. The yearly office pools are well underway, and so we have the obligatory articles that get published this time every year that talks about how American businesses lose a couple billion dollars of productivity over employees who would rather watch hoops than make deals. Whatever. Those stories only appeal to number crunchers who read said stories, swear up and down that their business won't slack off like that... and then promptly plunk down $20 on brackets. I know it happens; I've seen it happen.

Originally it was thought that there would be a lack of interest in such things around here because of the lack of Syracuse in the tournament, but at least where I work, that lack ended, oh, about 11:50 this morning, or 20 minutes before the first game. That's when the mad dash for the copier began for everyone who suddenly developed the last-minute urge to jump into the pool. Now I'm sure you're wondering why I've waited until after the tournament has started to write about who I'm picking and brackets and such. Well, there's a good reason... not that I think any of you would draw your inspiration for how to fill out your pool sheet from me, but since the games have started, it's too late for you to do that anyway.

So here's who I'm going with... I'll admit I'm not picking this like I would in some years. I've been burned in the past by going against teams I don't like (for example, Temple torched my bracket one year when I picked them to fall in the 1st round because I didn't like John Chaney), but this year... well... how can you NOT pick Duke to lose in the first round? Unless you like Duke, in which case I feel sorry for you. Accordingly, I have the ACC and Pac-10 collectively going down in flames. Why? They're OVERRATED, that's why, and part of the reason why Syracuse didn't make the NCAAs. I know what the RPI says and all that, but you have to start from somewhere when the season begins, and I'm convinced that they start the season by weighting the RPI toward the conferences whose asses receive the most kissing.

That being said, I did pick what I think are a good last four teams for Atlanta: Florida, Ohio State, Georgetown, and Kansas. Some people picked using various crazy methods like flipping coins or randomly picking, oh I dunno, Davidson to make it to Atlanta, and I am guaranteed to do better than these people. Considering Davidson's already out of the tournament, I'm off to a good start. Florida and Georgetown make the finals, and Florida wins. I know it's difficult to repeat as champions of college basketball, but it's hard to pick against a veteran team in March.

Oh, and I'm picking Syracuse to win the NIT, for obvious reasons.

What's Wrong With Local Radio? What ISN'T?

As I am now officially a grad student-to-be at one of the most prestigious communications schools in the country (name withheld because I'd rather they not toss me out before day ONE due to this blog), and I've put in my time in the radio business, I'm declaring myself an authority on the local radio scene here in Syracuse. It's time for the future professor to weigh in on what is indeed a sorry state of affairs in market #80.

Now I'm going to try not to get into a technical discussion about formatics and such, cuz I know most of you could not care less, so let me hook you with this... When I hop in my car and put on the radio (which these days is the only time I do listen to the radio), I just want to hear good music that hasn't been overplayed to death. Sometimes I want to hear older stuff, sometimes I want to hear newer stuff, and I want to hear different kinds of music. The DJ's are secondary, but my only real requirement for them is that they just have the ability to sound like they know what they're doing. Now how many of you out there are like me in these simple requirements? Probably a lot...

Every station in town flunks on at least one of these counts.

First of all, no station has all live DJs from 6am-midnight anymore. Not in this town. Every station has at least one DJ who is pre-recorded and computer-fed to the masses. I don't listen to every radio station in town, because I don't like light adult pop (otherwise known as "elevator music") or country, but I know enough about those stations to know that at minimum one part of the day, DJ "such-and-such" is actually DJ "such-and-such in a can". But hey, all these big and small radio companies have to save a buck somewhere, so this is where they've chosen to do it... by reducing DJs to pre-recording their shows so they can do other things while their show airs... or worse yet, get sent home because they've done their day's work in the 30 minutes it took them to pre-record.

Now we'll just narrow down to the ones I listen to. I'm a rock fan, so my 3 choices are TK99, the "classic rock station", 95X, the regular rock station, and K-Rock, the so-called "alternative" station. At least there is choice between these three stations, so you'll never hear the same beaten-to-death AC/DC or Scorpions song on all 3 stations at once... but even 2 out of 3 is too much for me. I'm sorry but when was it decreed that AC/DC and the Scorpions are core rock station artists? I used to LIKE AC/DC, but that was before every song in the catalog got thrown on rock stations and you couldn't go more than 90 minutes without hearing one of them. And the Scorpions had 3 hit songs... there is no need to put every non-hit they put out on the radio... and definitely not every 90 minutes.

TK's DJs are a pretty solid group, and I love Mimi Griswold's "Blue Moon Cafe" on Sunday mornings, perfect light music for that time slot. 95X's DJs? Ouch. Stone is okay; the others sound like all they know how to do is read a card that says "Give name of artist and name of song, then the name of the album it came from." And that's all they say, every time they turn on the microphone. Yeah, that's something that probably only bothers radio vets like me, but still, it's irritating. Good move, however, putting "Opie and Anthony" on in the mornings.

So that takes care of my problems with TK and X, which leaves the "so-called" alternative station, K-Rock. I am currently listening to an Internet stream of DC101 in Washington, one of the most well-known alternative stations in the country... they are playing "When You Were Young" by the Killers, which was the #1 alternative song in the country for several weeks last fall. K-Rock NEVER PLAYED IT. Over the past two years, this station has morphed from one that had actual diversity in its playlist to one that plays one type of rock and that's it... hard rock. Nothing that sounds even remotely pop-sounding. Zero female artists. If a current hit song does not fit the one type they're looking for, they don't play it. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of K-Rock's "core" artists, and K-Rock refused to play the song "Snow", which also went to #1; they played a different album track instead, one that was harder. As of today, I haven't heard the new Incubus hit ("Dig") on K-Rock... as it's a lighter song, I doubt they'll play it at all.

And the final straw... they just added NASCAR. Alternative stations DO NOT RUN NASCAR RACES!!! The typical NASCAR fan does not want to hear the Killers or the Red Hot Chili Peppers... they want to hear Skynyrd or Molly Hatchet. Galaxy Communications, the owner of K-Rock, also owns TK... and wouldn't it make actual sense if NASCAR was put on the station that played the music NASCAR fans want to hear? Which leads me to this conclusion... K-Rock will change format within 6 months to become another regular rock station like 95X, and Syracuse will truly be without an alternative rock station. Although we're pretty close to not having one already...

93Q is the heritage pop station, but in recent months it has traded the ratings crown back and forth with Hot 107, its more R&B/rap-flavored rival. Since most pop music for me is unlistenable, I only listen when they play a song I like. 93Q's morning show is BEYOND unlistenable, and I'm willing to bet it may be why Hot beats them in the ratings. You have a station that from 10am-6am plays music aimed at young adult women (and kids, of course), and then from 6-10am you have a show that sounds like it is aimed at middle-aged soccer moms, and ONLY them. So your morning audience (sizable though it may be) doesn't follow you to the rest of the day and the audience the rest of the day tunes out then.

A quick word about AM's... WSYR does a good job of providing entertaining talk and good news coverage... but the weekend news people are AWFUL. I know this is where you get the college kids doing their first professional job, but at least make sure they sound good enough to go on air before just throwing them on. WHEN is a decent station, but corporate owner Clear Channel cooked their goose when they made WHEN fire Brent Axe just to cross off another line on the balance sheet.

So there ya go... radio in this town, for the most part, sucks. So what's the alternative? Well, for many it's satellite radio. I've toyed with the idea of getting one of those, but I fear it will just become another "toy" I don't use enough. So I listen to CDs, and a growing number of people are doing that too. You would think this would alarm the local stations so that they would do something to get these people back. Well, no; they're too lazy to do this, either that or they laid off their whole research departments a long time ago. So they just focus on the listeners they have left and what those people want... which leads to these one-flavor radio stations, and more frustrated fans leaving to find diversity. It's a vicious cycle.

Thing is, I don't really know how to fix it. Perhaps when I have a Masters, the answer will magically come to me...

Get Over It

People can get very bitter sometimes. I know that's not exactly a ground-breaking statement, but when that bitterness is so visible, you just take a step back and say, "Whoa, THAT is bitter." We've seen several examples this week of people who obviously cannot get over defeats in their lives and it's made them extremely bitter.

The first bit of bitterness came in the form of an extended letter to the editor in Tuesday's Syracuse Post-Standard by Michael Whyland, who was Dan Maffei's campaign director in last year's unsuccessful Congressional run. I have to put emphasis on "unsuccessful" because Mr. Whyland has apparently forgotten that the 2006 election is OVER. Whyland apparently felt the need to take issue with Jim Walsh, who defeated Maffei in November, for holding local "town hall" meetings in recent days, claiming this was something Walsh had never done in 18 years previously and that he's had a sudden "conversion" after the last election.

Whyland then goes back into the same tired talking points that he and Maffei's minions kept repeating throughout the 2006 campaign, about Walsh's votes on the minimum wage and this, that, and the other thing. He concluded by stating that the only reason his candidate lost is the "campaign based on deceit and outright lies" against Maffei. Well, at least that's better than blaming "little old ladies" who counted the votes on Election Day as you did when you demanded your futile recount last November. However, what part of Maffei being only a DNC operative and only moving back here to Syracuse to run for Congress was a LIE? It was the TRUTH. This letter did nothing but SCREAM "bitter". Listen up, Mr. Whyland, either announce that Dan Maffei is going to run again in a 2008 rematch with Walsh (which I predicted here he will do eventually), or SHUT THE HELL UP. You and your message were proven wrong by the voters last November; now you have to deal with it.

And speaking of those who can't get over elections... the 2000 election is back in play once again. For this, you can thank the Academy, as many did last Sunday night at the Oscars. Al Gore won for Best Documentary for the mistitled "An Inconvenient Truth", and Leonardo DiCaprio was practically begging Gore to announce that he was going to run for president in 2008 and save us all. Many on the left who don't want Hillary or Obama because of their negatives (and doesn't that make them sexist/racist, but I digress...) agree that Gore should run in 2008 because now he has been vindicated for getting robbed by that "partisan" Supreme Court in 2000. For many, such as columnist Maureen Dowd (who thinks that name-calling is an acceptable form of political discourse), this vindication has come in the form of Gore winning an Academy Award, being mentioned for a Nobel Prize, and well, everything that's happened in the last 6 years since Bush took office.

I actually predicted a Gore-Hillary "victim-off" in 2002, but I figured it would be in 2004, not this year. Instead, neither ran and the Dems were stuck with John Kerry... *ahem*. Now, with Hollywood quickly writing their checks to Obama, Gore's only real shot is to enter now, and not at the last minute as some predict. The Hollywood money would flow right to Gore the minute he announced, and then it would be on... "I got jobbed by the Supreme Court" vs. "My husband the president had an affair with an intern". Biggest victim gets the nomination and the right to say, "I deserve to be president because I'm a victim."

GIVE ME A BREAK. First of all, the 2000 election is ancient history, and although it seems like many will NEVER get over it, they need to. The 2004 election validated Bush's presidency. You cannot say, "Well if Gore won in 2000, he would have won in 2004," because you don't know who the Republicans would have run in '04, much less what would have happened in the country in the 4 years in between. Furthermore, I don't think Gore's going to run, but I've been wrong before.

Lastly, getting back to local issues, the bonds were sold the other day for the long-awaited, long-delayed Destiny project. There will be shovels in the ground within weeks. While some naysayers like Dick Case, who claimed that Destiny couldn't find a buyer for the bonds because nobody invests in shopping malls anymore, were quietly eating their crow, others chose to go the bitterman route. Cartoonist Frank Cammuso painted a fairy-tale portrait that proclaimed that now that Destiny was getting built, all of Syracuse's problems will instantly go away and we will all live "happily ever after."

No. That's not what we Destiny supporters believe; it's never been what we believe. To make it look like that's the only project we're behind is an insult to the other investors who are, as we speak, readying their own plans to put shovels and steel in the ground downtown. This is, was, and has always been only a part of the resurgence of Syracuse. To poke fun at us simply because what we wanted to happen, what we knew would happen, is actually going to happen just shows the bitterness of those who lost the battle.

To sum it up, I've been on the losing end of a lot of things in my life, and I could have been bitter about a lof of things, but in the end it's just not worth it. You have to move forward, learn your lessons, and get over it all. It would be too all of our benefits if many more people out there could do the same.