Pirates-Yankees

With the Yankees scheduled to make their first trip to Pittsburgh since the 1960 World Series, the Post-Gazette is gearing up for the series. They've kicked off their preview to the three-game series that begins Tuesday with a great article by Paul Meyer that can be read here.

It's a sort of long, but well written and worth the time if you enjoy reading about the days when the Bucs were good. Growing up and watching the Pirates over the past 20 years, you find it hard to imagine the Bucs competing in the World Series with such franchises like the Yankees. This article helps. It takes you back to an era where baseball was at the top of the world and so were the Pirates. The '60 World Series hero Bill Mazeroski will be on hand Tuesday to throw out the first pitch to begin this series so hopefully the Pirates can actually do something and honor his presence instead of just getting swept. Now if only they could play this upcoming series in Forbes Field...

Interleague Play

Back in the day, say 1996, the idea of having interleague play in baseball was exciting. All people could think about was seeing rare matchups between city rivals and great World Series rematches. You had the White Sox heading to the north suburb to play the Cubs in Wrigley. You also had the subway series with the Yankees and Mets, the Bay series with the A's and Giants among many others. I was 15 years of age when MLB added the interleague play to the regular season in 1997 and I was excited. It was thrilling to watch these teams that never played each other before battle it out during the season.

But things have changed. Baseball took a unique idea and went too far with it. Maybe it's my new wisdom that you acquire as you get older, but I don't like interleague play anymore. I find myself to be more old school lately. I believe the divisions should go back to the way they used to be with four total divisions and the Dodgers should be in Brooklyn and not in the city of Angels. And now I think interleague play has worn out its welcome.

The thing that makes interleague play special is the rarity of the matchups you get from it. The problem with the current form of interleague play is you see the same four-five matchups every year and even twice a year! The Yankees and Mets have played every year since interleague began in '97. How is that special anymore? It was a real event to see the Yankees and Mets meet up for the first time, but how about the 60th something game in 10 years? Not so much. I don't know about you but I'm tired of seeing the Yankees-Mets. Same thing with the Cubs-White Sox. It's not a story to see them play every year anymore. If you keep the games within your own league then it makes the World Series that much more special.

Another problem of many on the list of interleague play is that while the Yankees and Mets are having fun playing each other 50 times a year, you get those great Washington-Seattle, Kansas City-Arizona series. Nothing screams great historic rivalry like that Colorado-Tampa Bay matchup. Throw the records out when those two teams get together. Then add in a scheduling quirk since the National League has two more teams than the American League so while everyone is involved in interleague, fans in the NL are stuck with Pirates-Cubs.

Look, I know the reasoning behind adding interleague play in the mid-90s, and I agreed with it. MLB needed help bringing excitement and ratings back into the sport after the '94 strike. It worked...it shouldn't take all the credit since the McGwire/Sosa home run chase helped, but interleague played a big part in boosting the ratings after a low time in baseball. I don't have a problem with that. But it doesn't mean they can't change it up now that the sport is popular as ever again.

How about adding some balance to the schedule? Why not go to a NFL-like schedule where teams will play one division from the other league one year and then switch to another division the next year? They need some kind of balance with no importance placed on certain teams or certain matchups. Or maybe we can just go old school and scrap the whole thing altogether.

The Inexperienced Penguins Were Supposed To Be Swept, Right?

Win or lose tomorrow night in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, you can't talk about the Penguins lack of experience anymore. Not after last night's (or this morning) triple-overtime thriller that ended with a 4-3 Pens win and at least one more game in the Finals. Media members and NHL "experts" talked about the Penguins lack of playoff experience being the reason they would falter in this series. Everybody had Detroit down as their champion, except for the Pens of course. They heard that reasoning throughout the entire playoffs about them being too young and inexperienced.

I never bought into that argument. There are plenty of instances over the last decade of sports that disprove the no experience theory. Anybody remember the 2003 Florida Marlins? That went into Wrigley, scored eight runs in an eventful eighth inning and went on to knock off the veteran-laden Yankees team in the World Series. No experience for that team and they walked into Yankee Stadium on the game's biggest stage and stunned New York. How about the New York Giants in the past Super Bowl. Most of that team had never sniffed the big game and they walked in and defeated the undefeated, experienced, been there before New England Patriots. Give a young team a chance and things will happen.

I'm tired of hearing about the Pens lack of experience. The perseverance they showed last night on the road, rallying for a game-tying goal with 33 seconds remaining in their season and then fighting through three overtime periods for a victory was unreal. Crosby and Fleury are growing up before our eyes on national television on hockey's biggest stage. The Penguins have proven they can win games against the Wings...even on the road in a hostile environment. In the past three games, both teams have been battling and fighting for every loose puck in games that have all come down to the wire. Lack of experience? Forget about it.

If the Pens' Stanley Cup run does come to an end tomorrow night at the Igloo, it won't be because lack of playoff experience. Keep doubting this young Pittsburgh team and they just might have enough to win two more and pull this series off. Let's Go Pens!

June 1st Baseball Talk

Well June is here once again so fire up your grills, hit the beach and start enjoying that warm weather. OK, temperatures are slowly rising at least in the Midwest so one of these days summer weather will show up, right? Regardless of the weather, June is the month in MLB when teams begin to separate themselves from the pack and you find out who the good teams are from the pretenders. Since today is the first day of June and the Pens lost last night, I can't think of a better time, than right now, to talk some baseball.

The Rays - The sun might not be shining bright in the northern part of the country, but the Rays are shining in Tampa, Florida. The Rays currently are 34-22, own the best record in the American League and are one game ahead of the Red Sox in the AL East. While I still think the Red Sox will end up winning this division, don't expect the Rays to fall much behind. Boston are the champs and still have enough talent and pitching to take over the division and be the favorite heading into October. But expect the Rays to be around all summer and compete for a wild card berth in the AL. Everybody knew about Tampa Bay's young hitting prospects coming into the season with BJ Upton, Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria, but the Rays are winning because of their pitching and defense. They are currently fifth in the AL in ERA with a 3.67 mark and have tossed seven shutouts in two months. The Rays also have the league's top fielding percentage (.989) and have the fewest errors with 23 in 56 games. Baseball is a simple game sometimes, you are going to win plenty of games if you are pitching and playing stellar defense. Don't expect this team to fade out of contention anytime soon.

Detroit Tigers - I'm burying this team for the 2008 season. Look, I live in the Detroit TV/media market so I get to watch the Tigers more than any other team. And yes, they are just 7.0 games out of first in the AL Central, yes there's plenty of time left in the season and yes they have an unbelievable lineup on paper, but hold on a second. This team has too many problems to dig themselves out of a 23-32 hole. Take for instance their AL-worst team ERA. Their bullpen is a mess with no one to go to when they are in a close game. And the stacked lineup will put up 10 runs one game and then get shutout the next two. The lineup people were talking about putting up 1,000 runs during spring training has surprisingly been shutout nine times. NINE times in two months! Forget about it. The Tigers hitters have been way too inconsistent to expect to compete.

NL East - I see this division coming down to the wire again this season, but the Marlins won't be there come September. The Mets will get it going over the next couple of months and the Braves are looking like the same well-constructed team that won 15 straight division titles. I think it will come down to the Mets and Braves with the Phillies not far off, but the Marlins will fade soon. Florida has been knocking the ball out of the yard this year, ranking second in the NL in homers, but their average is middle of the road and they aren't getting great pitching with a 4.38 ERA. The pitching will catch up to the Fish and they will fall behind the more experienced and talented Mets and Braves. I'll take the Mets to win the division with a real good chance that the wild card will come from this division in either the Braves or Phillies.

Pirates are 26-29. Will they finish with a winning season? Nope, absolutely not. Somehow this team is 26-29. I don't understand that, but their division is too talented for the Pirates to get past any of them. The Pirates have an ERA of 5.00 and the starting pitching has been atrocious with Phil Dumatrait suddenly becoming their most consistent pitcher. The Bucs two young starters that were supposed to carry them this year have been the worst two on the team...Ian Snell has been awful, same with Tom Gorzelanny plus he's hurt thanks to Jim Tracy. They are toward the bottom of the National League in hitting, second-worst in ERA and are dead last in fielding. The Reds, Brewers, Cubs, Cardinals and Astros all have more talent than the Pirates so they will be losing their 16th consecutive season.

Teams to watch for over the next couple of months to start making a run: Indians, Brewers, Rangers and Blue Jays.