Today was a big day for Major League Baseball with three major announcements coming out within a few hours of each other. I know I know three announcements doesn’t sound like much but during football season anytime MLB can grab headlines it’s a win. As a Red Sox fan the biggest news of the day was probably former Boston great Theo Epstein flanked by Jed Hoyer offering the managerial position of the Chicago Cubs to Brewers bench coach Dale Sveum. The Red Sox and Cubs list of managerial candidates were carbon copies including Sandy Alomar, Jr., Mike Maddux (who withdrew his name from both jobs), and Sveum. It was no surprise then that both teams targeted Sveum as their leading candidate for the job considering that GM Ben Cherington and Epstein are old pals with identical organizational philosophies, don’t believe that malarkey the Sox came out with today that they didn’t offer Sveum the job yesterday because they want a guy with experience they made it clear Sveum was their man all along. The Cubs took the leap yesterday and Sveum said yes today. Thank god and thank you Theo from saving the Red Sox from making a horrible decision. Dale Sveum was not the answer to this teams problems he would’ve been a stopgap guy who was forced out of town quicker than Wendell Kim could have waved him in from third. During the 2004 and 2005 seasons Sveum was the 3rd base coach for my beloved Red Sox and he managed to become the butt of many a joke during his short stint in beantown. He was an aggressive third base coach with a slight problem of knowing when to and when not to send runners home. I’ll say it again Dale Sveum isn’t the right guy for the Boston Red Sox manager position. I personally would’ve liked to see Mike Maddux in here cleaning up this pitching staff but we’ll see what direction they choose to go. One last time thanks Theo for saving the Red Sox from themselves.
In other news around the Majors the Houston Astros sale to Jim Crane was finalized with his agreement to move the ‘Stros to the AL West in 2013. This shift is a big one because it leaves Major League Baseball with a 15/15 split meaning an interleague series being played every day of the week. It makes sense to move the ‘Stros to the AL West because it finally creates a balance between all 6 divisions. Instead of the NL Central teams having to deal with 5 adversaries and the AL West teams only have to beat out 3 other teams for a playoff spot all divisions now have balance. It also makes sense from the standpoint that there is a natural rivalry within America’s best baseball state that’s been waiting to be exploited. The Texas Rangers and Houston Astros are only 3 hours apart but only played once a year during interleague play with people barely caring about the outcome now these games are important division games. I see this rivalry becoming a good one down the line, much better than any ‘rivalry’ the Rangers had with the Mariners, Angels, or Athletics. The only drawback is that the Astros now have to travel to the west coast instead of playing teams all within their time zone but I think it’s a sacrifice worth making for the good of baseball. Now for the final news of the day and probably, no definitely, the most controversial…
Bud Selig announced today that MLB is going to expand their playoffs from 8 teams to 10 teams with an additional wild card in each conference. This final piece is contingent on the Players Union agreeing to it but all indications are that they will agree to include it in the next CBA. Just for information purposes: the current CBA is set to expire on December 11 but I like baseball’s chances of agreeing especially after watching the self inflicted wounds the NBA is suffering from currently. People are pretty split on whether or not it’s a good idea for baseball to introduce an extra wild card I personally am ok with it as long as it’s a one game winner take all playoff between the wild card teams. A one game playoff doesn’t deplete either team and adds a little bit more excitement to the end of a regular season that far too often is dull and drawn out. This year was an exception with the Rays and Cardinals punching tickets to the dance on the final day but when else has the final day of a regular season been anywhere near that exciting? A one game wild card round would provide some excitement and allow another team a chance at glory. Baseball’s biggest problem for years has been finding a way to increase excitement in markets like Kansas City and Pittsburgh when they know that they have no chance at getting a playoff spot maybe now that’ll change a little bit. In the end though everyone knows that the MLB big wigs due to the Tampa Bay Rays emergence are necessitating this extra playoff spot. Major League Baseball can’t afford to have either the Red Sox or Yankees and their massive TV markets sitting home for the playoffs. The Rays are a great story every year but they don’t bring in the cake like Boston and New York. Most years unless the Angels or White Sox crash the party you’re going to get the Sox and Yanks into at least the wild card showdown round.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know what you think folks.
Geoff Jablonski
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