One Small Lament...

Watching the playoffs on TV can be a frustrating experience. Every advertisement is for a car, some miracle pill, or an insurance company. The automotive industry, which has worked so hard to scuttle better fuel efficiency standards...pharmaceutical companies, which will oppose universal health care to the end...insurance companies, which will do anything to avoid paying a claim.

How willing they all are to shell out millions for primetime TV ads.

And then there are those disturbing ads where the most intense people in the universe are working out and sweating Gatorade.

Anyhow, go Tribe.

nwb

Nate's ALCS preview - Cleveland vs. Boston

OK, now that the Yankees are toast, on to bigger and better. The two best teams in the AL are squaring off for the pennant, and that's exactly how it should be. What better road to a title than through New York and Boston? What greater satisfaction could there be than triumphing over the AL's two most bloated payrolls? The Yankees make me want to puke forever, and the Sox aren't far behind.

This second round will be much, much tougher than the first. Why? Because the Red Sox are much, much better. Their lineup may pale next to the Yankees, but there is a reason why the Sox are still playing.

So, let's get right down to it.

1B: Ryan Garko vs. Kevin Youkilis. This is a matchup of nearly identical hitters. Garko has more power, but Youkilis gets on base more often. But in the field Youkilis separates himself from his opposite number. Garko proved himself a quick study in his first season as a full-time first baseman, but Youkilis made exactly zero errors this year in 135 games compared to Garko's 8. Advantage: Youkilis (slightly).

2B: Asdrubal Cabrera vs. Dustin Pedroia. Again, many similarities. Two rather obscure, but very talented and upcoming players will man second base in this series. Pedroia can wield the stick and was good for a very legitimate .317 mark this year. Also impressive are the 39 doubles he mixed in there. Cabrera had some very, very rookie looking at bats in the ALDS, but he has cemented his spot as the number two hitter for the postseason. Both players are great with the glove, but Cabrera is the second coming of Omar Vizquel. Advantage: Pedroia.

SS: Jhonny Peralta vs. Julio Lugo. These are totally different players. Lugo batted neither for power (8 hr) or average (.237) in '07. Lugo has been a better hitter in the past, but Peralta, who tortured the Yankees last week, is far superior on offense, except on the basepaths. At short? Both will butcher a play. Lugo has more range, and Peralta's limitations are well known, but the bottom line is Jhonny had more assists, putouts and double plays than Lugo did this year. Advantage: Peralta.

3B: Casey Blake vs. Mike Lowell. This is a matchup between a fairly consistant all-star and, well, Casey Blake. Lowell will give you 20 and 90 in an average year. Casey? Try 20 and 70. Let's not delude ourselves. Advantage: Lowell.

LF: Kenny Lofton vs. Manny Ramirez. Is this the mismatch that it seems? Pretty much. Still, Lofton is by far a better fielder and baserunner than Manny could ever dream of being, and those things factor into the postseason when games are tight. But Manny is Manny, and the fact is: Manny is one of the greatest hitters of all-time. Advantage: Ramirez.

CF: Grady Sizemore vs. Coco Crisp. The sickening thing here is that these players should be playing side by side in the outfield and batting 1-2 in the Tribe's order. The Coco Crisp trade remains one of the worst in Cleveland history, period. I love Coco Crisp, and part of me will never forgive Mark Shapiro (unless we win the World Series) for dealing him away prior to last season. BAH! Anyhow, Grady Sizemore can do anything Coco Crisp does, but better. Both can run, hit and field, but Grady is the uebertalent here. If Coco Crisp took steroids, he would be Grady Sizemore. Advantage: Sizemore.

RF: Franklin Gutierrez (not Trot Nixon!) vs. J.D. Drew. Here we have a slick-fielding up-and-comer versus the most overhyped baseball player of all time (or, at least until this season saw a teammate surpass him). Drew pretty much sucked this year, but he does get on base. Gutierrez, meanwhile, has looked AWFUL at the plate in this postseason, but he sure is a handsome devil. Advantage: even.

C: Victor Martinez vs. Jason Varitek. Victor Martinez is a great hitter. Jason Varitek is a good hitter. Jason Varitek is a very good fielder. Victor Martinez worked hard to make himself a very good fielder. Both call great games for their pitchers. Both are all-stars. Victor Martinez is (or at least should be) Alex Rodriguez' nearest rival for MVP. Advantage: Martinez.

DH: Travis Hafner vs. David Ortiz. Two big-time, game changing hitters, but Ortiz is the postseason hero. Both players hit for power and average. Both have great eyes at the plate. Both score runs. Still, with Hafner's off year it's gotta be...advantage: Ortiz.

No. 1 starter: C.C. Sabathia vs. Josh Beckett. Two great, great pitchers. That's about all I can say. This should be an epic matchup and my mind cramps up when I try to figure out who's better. Advantage: even (Sabathia).

No. 2 starter: Fausto Carmona vs. Curt Schilling. I don't want to hear about the stupid bloody sock. Schilling has so much experience and guts and blah, blah. How about stymieing the Yankees in your first-ever playoff start? Does that count for guts? Fausto is a better pitcher at this point. Advantage: Carmona.

No. 3 starter: Jake Westbrook vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka. Wow, a player on the Red Sox who has somehow managed to be more overhyped than J.D. Drew. Boston paid billions for this guy to put up very Jake Westbrook-type numbers in the regular season (15 wins, 4.40 ERA). Both pitchers have struggled in the postseason, but my gut is telling me that Jake prevails. Advantage: even.

No. 4 starter: Paul Byrd vs. Tim Wakefield. Two junkballers. My Indians/Yankees preview was pretty accurate except for one detail: I didn't expect Paul Byrd to ever take the mound. This is why I'm a make-believe sportswriter and not a major-league manager. What can I say? I love that Paul Byrd is all heart and no arm. I also love knuckleballs, and Tim Wakefield is the last of a dying breed. Still, one glaring statistic: Wakefield's postseason ERA is above 6. That's downright ugly. Advantage: Byrd.

Bullpen: Rafael Perez, Rafael Betancourt, Tom Mastny, Jensen Lewis and Aaron Fultz vs. Javier Lopez, Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima and Mike Timlin. Lopez, Okajima and Delcarmen were nasty this year. Betancourt, Perez and Lewis were better. Aaron Fultz? Let's hope not. Advantage: Indians (barely).

Closer: Joe Borowski vs. Jonathan Papelbon. Both closers had superlative years, but Papelbon was better in just about every category. Here's praying he makes very few appearances in this series. Advantage: Papelbon.

Nate's official ALCS prediction: This is going to be a close series. As I said, this is a better team than the Yankees, and much better suited to win postseason games. That translates roughly to: Indians win 4-2. I believe that the Red Sox pitching is less adept than it looked against Anaheim, and that C.C. and Fausto are going to outpitch their opposite numbers. The Angels, after all, are a collection of slap happy spray hitters. Good pitching beats good hitting. The Angels had good pitching this year, but you need to have SOME hitting to advance in postseason play. Anaheim (or LA of A or whatever the hell they're called) put to rest a question I had when the Tribe faced them in the regular season: why are they so good? The answer? They weren't.

nwb

Nate Reads the Bible.

Genesis. The beginning.

A couple of things jumped out early for me in the narrative, the most glaring of which was: this really is a dual narrative, at the least. Very distinctive voices color this portion of the text, and they don't necessarily jibe with each other.

The first narration wastes little time explaining what happened over the course of seven days. Things were created, and in this order: 1) light 2) the sky 3) the Earth and its vegetation 4) the sun, moon and stars 5) fish and birds 6) land animals and humankind. That takes six days, followed by a seventh day of rest. Let's focus on day six, when God creates humans:

Then God said, Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness. Then, a bit later: So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them, and God blessed them.

That "them" is important. According to this passage, man and woman were created simultaneously and told to multiply. Furthermore, there is no hint of Adam or Eve or any Garden of Eden. They are neither mortal or immortal. "Them" is very unspecific in number. All we know is: there was more than one, there was at least one of each gender and they were impelled to use all that God had created beforehand.

Then comes the more famous account.

This narrative is more detailed and the order of creation is much different. Here God creates a single man from the dust and then makes a garden for him. After that come the animals, but since there is no real companion for the man, out comes the rib and, voilà, woman.

So, an immediate disconnect to start things off, and just a page apart. Two narratives, two fairly dissimilar origins of the world and human life. I suppose one could argue that the first narrative gives a broad account, while the second attempts to paint in the details of what happened, but that does not explain away other contradictions. The first narrative is so specific in laying out the order of things. To me, it's important that man and woman were created last. God created this realm and it pleased him and he thought to populate it with humans. In the second narrative, the creation of man is sandwiched in the middle and really the whole idea of seven days disappears. Here God wanted man first, and he molded the world to suit this one man.

Which are we supposed to believe? Do we choose? Or do we try to make them fit together? To me that's not possible. Obviously the rib narrative has been more widely acknowledged and embraced, but why? I imagine the way humans thrive on storytelling has something to do with it. In this narrative there are characters and events to latch on to. There are voices and there is dialogue. Adam and Eve have failings and fears just like anyone else. Here one finds real human elements and emotions where the other offers a rather cold and generic version of "humankind."

That's the best I can come up with.

More on Genesis later.

nwb

ALDS Wrapup.

OK, let's keep this short and sweet. The Yankees are gone. Let's make this perfectly clear: they had no chance in this series. There were many intense moments, but the Indians, because of their pitching, are the superior team.

Nate's Most Valuable Player: this is a hard one (no I am not going to consider the game two bugs). There are so many names to choose from. Kenny Lofton gave us a veteran presence and led the hit parade in game one with 4 RBI. Fausto Carmona, except for one mistake pitch, was unhittable in game two. Rafael Perez gave up nothing (aside from a too-little, too-late Rodriguez homer in the seventh inning of game 4) out of the bullpen and Grady Sizemore had a .524 on-base percentage. Jhonny Peralta was an absolute monster at the plate. He hit NO home runs. He did hit .467 with a .579 OBP. Two runs, two RBI, three doubles and a stolen base. But he is edged out (barely) by Paul Byrd. No one wanted him to pitch. No one expected him to win. He did, and the Yankees are golfing.

Nate's Most Valuable Play: Perez, unlike all season, looked extremely hittable in game four. When he relieved Paul Byrd in the sixth inning, he immediately got himself into a two on, one out situation with Derek Jeter at the plate. This is perhaps the most unenviable situation that I could imagine for a major league relief pitcher. What happened? Rafael induced the Yankee Captain to ground into his third double play of the series.

Also noteworthy:

As an Indians fan, there is no sweeter sight than the face of a Yankees fan, streaked with tears.

If there were any justice in the world, Rafael Betancourt, who delivered the Indians' only 1-2-3 inning in game four, would be a Cy Young candidate. Setup man: the most thankless job in baseball.

Kelly Shoppach deserves to be a starting catcher for someone. His arm is lethal and he can hit some. No doubt we have the best catching tandem in the bigs.

Asdrubal Cabrera showed some rookie tendencies at the plate: bad swings early in the count, most notably.

I loved Roger Clemens' little limp as he exited game 3. Amateur theatrics. Nice waste of 22 million, Yankees.

Jensen Lewis, rookie, showed no fear in this series. He brings nasty stuff to the plate and he trusts it. I am VERY impressed by this guy, who grew up an Indians fan.

Ryan Garko's comments about the bugs were classic and priceless. "I guess Fausto is just a little tougher." "The Yankees acted like there were bullets flying around their heads...I mean, this is the big leagues." Ryan Garko. Let's hope he's an Indian for a long, long time.

People love Derek Jeter. I HATE Derek Jeter. He played very poorly in this series. Way worse than Alex Rodriguez. (.176 BA for Jeter compared to .267 for Rodriguez).

Of course Joe Borowski made us sweat in the ninth inning of fame 4. Of course he got the save. The final out was a nasty breaking pitch to Jorge Posada, seconds after Posade hit a ball three miles down the first base line...foul.

Eric Wedge. Why do his players play hard for him, even in meager times? He respects them and the roles they play. His second guessers think C.C. Sabathia should have started game 4 on 3 day's rest. They believe that Kelly Shoppach should never have replaced Ryan Garko in the game 4 lineup. They think Rafael Betancourt should have pitched ninth inning of the series clincher. Wrong. Wedge has always been a player's coach. This year he has grown and proved he has the cerebral capacity to match his loyalty. The proof? We're playing for the pennant.

Listening to the network team of Chip Caray, Tony Gwynn and Bob Brenly was unbearable (Caray in particular is a hack. "AND HERE COME THE YANKEES!" he ejaculates after a leadoff single). Their desperation for the Yankees to score 100 runs in every game was so unprofessional and so typical. Case in point: try opening the MLB section of ESPN.com today. What is the headliner? No, it's not the Indians trouncing of the Yankees, it's the ever tiresome Joe Torre/ George Steinbrenner soap opera saga from hell. Way to be a tabloid, ESPN.

A post game celebration typically features fine champagne (Mumms) and bad beer (Bud Light).

The Yankees are INSANE if they part ways with Joe Torre, who has endless reserves of class and talent as a manager. That's the last Yankee compliment I will deliver here and maybe ever.

Here's hoping for a Indians-Rockies world series.

nwb

Why Democrats Suck.

How about this NY Times headline?

Democrats Seem Ready to Extend Wiretap Powers.

Sometimes I wonder why we continue this two party charade. I guess the greens will gain some momentum once the planet goes to hell. In the meantime we have to put up with this kind of crap.

Go Gravel.

nwb

Goodnight Yankees!

As predicted by McBone, the Tribe flushed the Yankees 3-1. I'll have a more in-depth analysis tomorrow, but the bottom line is that the Indians won this series because they are the better team. Period.

There is nothing, NOTHING better than eliminating the Yankees. It happened in 1997. Ten years later, down they go again.

Bring on the Red Sox.

nwb

Indians Lose. Bah!

I don't want to talk about Jake Westbrook's gopher pitch to super slugger Johnny Damon.

Nor do I want to discuss Trot Nixon overrunning Robinson Cano's single to right and allowing two runs to score.

Nope, don't want to even think about why Aaron Fultz was summoned as the first reliever from the bullpen.

All I want to do is puke and go to bed.

Here's hoping that Eric Wedge starts C.C. Sabathia tomorrow.

Go Tribe. Please.

nwb

Tribe Lead 2-0!

In the words of Humphrey Bogart: It seems that destiny has taken a hand.

Fausto Carmona pitched his guts out. So did Rafael Perez. Together they combined to toss 11 innings of 3 hit ball. That's the story of tonight's game, every bit as much as the swarm of gnats that descended upon Jacobs field sometime, and for some reason, in the middle innings.

But the bugs helped.

Give Joba Chamberlain credit. He didn't cave in. Even with gnats crawling over his neck and face, he coughed up but a single run. Andy Pettitte was just as gutsy, pitching out of jams inning after inning and surrendering not a thing. Carmona, though, aside from a hiccough of a hanging slider to Melky Cabrera, was even better. In all, he induced 19 Yankee hitters to ground out. His fastball was a buzzsaw and his sinker invisible. Still, until destiny intervened in the eighth inning, when Chamberlain uncorked a wild pitch that Grady Sizemore barely scored on, it appeared that this series would head back to the Bronx tied 1-1. After 11 bleeding-ulcer innings and one crucial act of god, Travis Hafner lined a game-winning single into center field. Ballgame. Indians win 2-1.

I can't take this.

Go Tribe.

nwb