as we may blog

Cubs win 1-0, despite TB’s best efforts. They are now 2-7 in one run games, no longer the worst in the majors.

I have a lot to say about J. C. Bradbury’s editorial "What Really Ruined Baseball," but I don’t really have time this morning to get into it all. Suffice it to say, I think he’s on to something. Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa may well have taken steroids, but that isn’t the only explanation for why so many records have fallen in the last decade. They accomplished all these feats against one of the most diluted talent pools of pitching in Major League Baseball history.

The origin of the modern home run era can in fact be traced to the expansion of the league. In the 1990s, Major League Baseball grew to 30 teams from 26 — the Marlins and the Rockies joined in 1993, the Devil Rays and Diamondbacks in 1998. The influx of inferior talent filling those new roster spots fundamentally altered the competitive environment: it allowed elite players, especially hitters, to excel.

I have one major quibble with the evidence he presents to support his argument:

[T]oday, the variance in quality of major league pitchers, based on E.R.A., is at an all-time high.

ERA is a flawed metric for evaluating the quality of a pitcher, since it depends heavily on the defense behind a pitcher–their alignment, their skills, and the scorekeeper’s propensity to score hits instead of errors.

There’s no either/or explanation for what’s happened to the game of baseball in the last 15 years. I appreciate Bradbury’s effort to discuss other factors besides performance-enhancing drugs. In addition to his Op-Ed piece, Bradley writes a blog called Sabernomics that is worth reading.

Remind me to take this day off next year.

I put a lot of faith in youngsters this year in our fantasy baseball league. Guys like Alex Gordon aren’t such a risky proposition (especially since I have Miguel Cabrera at 3B — dudes, the guy’s only 24, younger than David Wright!), but Stephen Drew at SS and Ian Kinsler at 2B, well… I’m hoping for league average out of them. If not, I suppose it’s time for the Wilson Betemits and Rich Aurilias of baseball to lead the A-Bots to their third title in four years.

As for non-fantasy action, the Brooklyn Cyclones’ season starts June 17 (are you kidding me?). I’ll need to hit up Shea well before then.

A gutty performance by four Iowa ex-pats in the right field bleachers was not enough to propel the Brooklyn Cyclones to victory on Saturday night in front of more than 8,000 fans at Keyspan Park. The Spikes carried a no hitter into the 5th (briefly trailing 1-0) and the dominant pitching performance meant the game finished before sundown.

Ah, but the games had only just begun after the last out was recorded. Dave and Carrie, a young couple from… somewhere… were due to finally get past 3rd base get married under the lights at home plate. The nuptial bobbleheads–apparently a standard dowry on Coney Island–proved to be a major league curiousity for the minor league baseball fans. However, the romanticism of a wedding in front of 16,000 bobbing caricatures was dampened by a bizarre pre-game ramble on the Jumbotron from the bride and groom to be.

She: "I can’t wait to get married to you in a few hours!"
He: was on a reality TV show once.

The ballgame ended early and the rest of the evening was pretty routine: a stroll down the boardwalk and past the Cyclone, flipping off the Bud Light ad on the G train (always worth it!), followed by a drunken silent auction in which I bid sixteen cents on a newspaper photo of a suspected terrorist under the headline "Mike’s-balls", and concluding in a sprint through Williamsburg after the B48, the bus that just wouldn’t stop.

Kate picks up the content slack with a clutch post about being a Cubs fan in Iowa City.

Hey, did I ever tell you guys about the time I saw Lenny Harris ground into a double play to end a game at Wrigley?