Royals to the NL?

Screw it. Nothing's sacred anymore in baseball.

Let's just blow the whole thing up and scrap the whole NL-AL arrangement. We'll just create the MLB Western Conference and the MLB Eastern Conference. Nobody will play each other in their division; it's 162 interleague games for everyone. And the World Series is now played between the MLB charmion and the Japanese charmion.

Tradition? Yeah, piss on tradition.

 

Got to agree with Oz here. People make fun of the Royals for overpaying on these guys, but that's probably what they have to do to get players to come there at this point.

The Royals still have some holes and I don't see how they can keep up in that division, but they have some very good pieces to build around.

The Marlins are the worst example of not even trying. They do have some young talent to build around. The outfield of Hermida, Maybin and Willingham could be very good a year or two from now. But they won't spend to keep it together or add veteran pieces.

And the Pirates are beyond hope. Years of front-office incompetence combined with not having the cash to compete with the big boys and ownership that won't even spend the money they do have has created an absolute disgrace of a franchise.

 

Not a half bad idea.

 

Not half good, either.

 

It's right in the middle. But then, it could be a "World Series" or at least close to it. Well, they did have the WBC a few years ago.

 

I hope you were kidding because that's a terrible fucking idea. Baseball is not basketball or football or hockey. That's part of what makes it so good.

 

Speak for yourself. Those were my favorite series of the year, secretly staying up 'til 1 a.m. with a radio under my covers turned down way low so my parents couldn't hear it ... and always being asked, "So, did they win?" by my dad in the morning when I struggled to wake up for school.

 

Did you fall asleep during a test at school the next day like Cory Matthews did after Alan woke him up to watch the Phillies' no-hitter?

 

Of course not. Cory and Shawn ain't got nothin' on me.

 

Actually, on the show, they referenced Tommy Greene's no-hitter -- in 1991 -- as the "last Phillies pitcher to throw a no-hitter," but never mentioned who tossed it the "previous" night. The episode was when Cory was in sixth grade, taped in 1993.

But I'll guarantee Tommy Greene didn't have a better moment on the field than that one, which is probably pretty easy when you've only got 38 career wins and have a 27.00 ERA in the World Series.

 

Maybe you can help me out, Buck, although this might be a stretch because I doubt you saw this. Actually, maybe you did. I was watching a Padres game in, probably, 1993 on ESPN -- when they still had baseball on nights other than Wednesday and Sunday -- and Ricky Gutierrez (I think) was nailed by a catcher's throw back to the pitcher. Do you remember who the catcher was and on which team he was playing?

I was trying to think of it this morning, but went to the well and came back thirsty.