eugene@utcsri.UUCP (Eugene Kligerman) (10/09/85)
In article <512@busch.UUCP> dcm@busch.UUCP (Craig Miller) writes: > >Oh yeah.. WHOOOOOOOO!!!! I-70 World Series is getting closer and >closer. Way to go, Cards. Way to go, Royals. The state of Missouri >smokes once again.... Sorry, Mets (and all you Mets fans. Sorry >Cosell, but it looks like the 'big city' team didn't do it this year.) >Looks like the 'pretenders' (har, har, har!!!) pulled it out! Looks like >New York got totally left out in the cold this year. Oh well... Like they >say, "The heat is on...". Or, "I love New York (in second place)"!!! I second that --------------------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Subject: LCS favourites ----------------------- Since both Cards and Royals are in the playoffs, the 'I-70 World Series' while closer, is still unlikely, at least in the eyes of the bookies. The latest line I heard (today on the radio, today being Mon, Oct. 8), the Blue Jays are 8 to 5 favorites over the Royals. The Dodgers are the slight favorites in the NL (probably on the strength of their pitching, and records versus one another). Subject: Blue Jays (& Royals) ----------------------------- As I mentioned above, the BJs are the favourites to win the AL pennant. - They lead K.C. in the most important categories: ERA, runs scored, batting average, overall record. - The Blue Jays also have a (dare I say it?) vastly superior outfield. - BJs have the best (or second best after NY) home record. - They are the only ones close to .500 on the road However, one also needs to be objective and point out the strong points of K.C. & weak points of BJs: - Kansas city had a winning record against the BJs this year (but I should point out that 3 or 4 of those losses were very close games). - Furthermore, KC have 3 left-handed starters, and the BJs are just under .500 against left-handers (while BJs are phenomenal against right-handers) - The 3 starters for the KC in LCS are 5-0 vs. the 3 starters for Toronto. As an ardent fan of the BJs, I would like to point out two other characteristics of the team that I noticed this year. 1) Blue Jays seem to bounce back immediately following the most heartbreaking losses. As examples, take the first game in Yankee SERIES a couple of weeks ago and the game past Friday in Toronto which would have clinched the AL East pennant, had the BJs been able to hang on (leading by a run, 2 outs in Yankee 9th, 1 & 1 count on Wynegar, BJs lost it). 2) The other side of the coin. Unlike other teams, the BJs seem to have a penchant for giving away the games that are won (or lacking the 'killer instinct'). I can name at least 3 games in the last several weeks: - 1'st game of series in NY, BJs leading 4-1 in 7th, commit 2 errors, mess up 2 potential double plays, and allow 5 unearned runs. - Game in Toronto against Boston, after tying it in the 9th on a HR, BJs are have bases loaded with 1 out in the bottom of 12th. They do not score & lose on a 13th inning Boston 2 run HR. - Past weekend, against Yankees: leading 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs, they allow HR & a subsequent error, losing the game. The BJs bounced back after those & many other losses, but one has to wonder if they can afford to give away games in a short series, as opposed to a 162 game season. A while back, I heard somewhere that the BJs lost something like 12 or 15 games in which the opposition won the game in their last at bat. So while the stats seem to favour the BJs, the winner of the AL series may be determined on intangibles or plain luck (those amazin' Mets of 69). Subject: TV ----------- Since I am a fan on an AL team (Blue Jays), I don't follow the NL closely. However what does upset me, is the number of games that concentrated on the NL. I think NBC saturday game of the week should be renamed to 'Dodgers on NBC'. It seems that whenever I caught a Sat. game on NBC it was Dodgers vs. ???. Over the last several weeks of the regular schedule, the only games that were on (NBC and ABC, possibly CBS) seemed to show Mets vs. ??? and Cards vs. ???. Now I know that those teams were involved in a fairly tight race, but none of those games involved head-to-head games of the competing teams. For some reason NONE of the Yankee vs. Blue Jays or K.C. vs. Angels were telecast over the last several weeks (I am not sure about K.C. & Angels). Oh, well! I guess the TV moguls know best what's good for their pockets. For those who are wondering about the source of this article (Toronto) and the discussion of U.S. networks, the answer is simple -- we get to see the Buffalo stations. Subject: Howard Cosell ---------------------- I am not a fan of Howard (not too many people are), but I think a rebuttal is in order to the statement in the article by Craig Miller (above). Howard has maintained (whenever I see him on Canadian TV), that he had picked BJs as the favourites to win the pennant since the start of the season. Now Toronto is not small (3 million +), but it ain't the NY zoo either. And now, home to cheer on the Blue Jays. -- Eugene Kligerman, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto UUCP: {linus ihnp4 allegra floyd utzoo cornell decwrl uw-beaver}!utcsri!eugene