Trade Deadline Ramifications 2009

Okay, the ’09 MLB trade deadline has come and gone...who won and who lost?

Nah, that’s too simple - with the economics of baseball being in worse shape than the American stock market, we should filter what we’ve seen over the last few weeks into categories. Welcome to “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”, ‘Sports Frenzy’ style!!!

Moving Players Like Freakin’ Chess Pieces: Must be nice to be a Red Sox fan. Um, we need a first baseman...let’s trade for Adam LaRoche! A few days pass. Ummm, can’t we do better than LaRoche? Let’s trade LaRoche for Casey Kotchman PLUS get Victor Martinez to boot!!! There’s the ticket...

Fire Sale!!!: See ‘Pirates, Pittsburgh’ & ‘Indians, Cleveland’. Also see ‘Disgraceful’ and ‘Pathetic’...

Waiting In The Weeds Like A Viper: The Cardinals didn’t do much last year to improve themselves, and St. Louis fans wondered aloud if they were being hosed like the Pirates faithful...their team opens a new ballpark and then abruptly stops trying to excel on the field as the cash registers overflow. Not so in 2009. Mark DeRosa, Julio Lugo, and Matt Holliday have joined Ryan Ludwick as Albert Pujols’ posse, and the Phillies have started sweating a bit...

How Do You Spell Relief???: The Cubs and Dodgers decided to bolster their bullpens and stick with the lumber they already had. John Grabow comes to The Windy City from Pittsburgh, and George Sherrill goes from the East Coast (Baltimore) to the West Coast (L.A.). Now if Lou Piniella can just get Kevin Gregg straightened out again...

Aces High: The Phillies already had Hamels, the White Sox already had Buehrle. Both pitchers helped lead their teams to World Series championships within the last five years. Now, Cole has Cliff Lee to watch his back & ‘Mr. Perfect Game’ will have Jake Peavy (by late August) to ride shotgun for him...

What does it all mean? In the end, we’re still looking at the haves vs. the have-nots. We’ll probably see the Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers, and Cubs (wild card) in the NL & the Red Sox, White Sox, Angels, and Yankees (wild card) in the AL. Sure, the postseason will be entertaining, but people will still drift en masse to pro football come September. Why? Because hope springs eternal everywhere in Roger Goodell’s world...the NFL makes it much more realistic for a team to stage a turnaround or comeback than the flawed financial structure of Major League Baseball does...

Just ask fans of the Pirates, Indians, Nationals, A’s, Royals, Orioles, and Blue Jays...

Frenzy Fallout - 6/10/09

Love the fact that the Magic were able to bounce back & win Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
Hate the fact that they blew a couple of great shots (thanks, Courtney) at winning Game 2 in Los Angeles.
Love the fact that Orlando set a Finals record with 62.5 percent FG shooting in Game 3.
Hate the fact that they still only won Game 3 by four points.
Love the fact that Stan Van Gundy has a wicked sense of humor.
Hate the fact that the Magic will still lose the series in six games...

Could This Be Magic or Could This Be…Kobe?

The Scorpions, those balding yet mullet-enhanced immortal metal gods from Germany, graced us with a tune some years back entitled "Tease Me, Please Me"...and it was good. As a theme song for the Chicago Cubs? We'll save that for another post...or maybe 400 of them. For now, let’s just say that the tune would be appropriate as a stadium-rousing statement for the 2008-2009 Orlando Magic.

As a self-proclaimed (and cynical) Magic fan, I would have to say Game 1 of the 2009 NBA Finals could best be described as an emotional crapshoot. Hey, we weren’t even supposed to be here, right? Ask Paul Pierce and LeBron 'I Can Pout Because I’m The Face of the NBA' James.

The first quarter Thursday night against the Lakers was satisfying enough – a tough, hard-fought period where Orlando grabbed a slim lead and led us Magic diehards to believe that we had a shot at stealing a game out in La-La Land. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Photo courtesy ESPN/Jeff Gross/Getty Images
Granted, the boys from the Realm of Mickey (Southeastern Branch, not Western) started off slowly against Boston and Cleveland as well, but this one feels different. I am not a Bynum/Gasol proponent by any means, but Dwight Howard looks to be in trouble on the defensive end against the two-headed 'Hydra of Mediocrity' that Pau and Andrew represent for the sometimes-interested city of Los Angeles. In fact, they give the Hollywood boys an edge that Big Ben & Z in Cleveland and the Powe/Perkins tandem in Boston couldn’t hope to match.

Maybe the Magic have hit the wall. Maybe they’ll surprise us all yet again. After all, they’ve already exceeded expectations and achieved what Shaq and Penny could only pull off once before in Orlando’s brief professional basketball history.

That being said, make it hard for Kobe. Make him work for it. Just like you made Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen sweat it out. Just like you made the King and His Minions toil and slog. Those of us who remember the NBA of Jordan, Magic, Bird, and Dr. J are still skeptical about David Stern’s hype machine and the touting of Kobe (and LeBron) as the best the game has ever offered. TV ratings may be better with Bryant involved, but I’m skeptical as to whether the game itself is a better product...