thefinishline 07/14/10
Is Baseball Back?
By Aaron M. Little
It was 16 years ago when the unimaginable occurred...the Major League Baseball season came to a non-climactic close in the middle of August with no winners and leaving everyone feeling like losers. Since then, Major League Baseball has notched its way back into my heart. There have been ups and downs along the way. You may remember the sensationalized home run race in 1998 between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa? Of course that was tarnished a few years later by what we all suspected was going on the whole time...the steroids scandal.
In the last decade, all four of the ‘90s expansion teams (Tampa Bay, Florida, Arizona, and Colorado) made a World Series appearance and two of those teams even won (Arizona in ‘01 and Florida in ‘03...which also won it all in ‘97)! How’s that for competitive balance? Sure, the Yankees make any non-Yankees fan a bit bitter with their free-spending ability, but out of respect for the late George Steinbrenner, we’ll not focus on that for now.
I think my point is...indeed, baseball is back. For the most part, the steroids mess is behind us, no one is talking about contraction anymore, and the pitching has been phenomenal this year...basically three perfect games in the first half of this season (yes, I’m counting the Galarraga blown call game, the imperfect perfect game, in my unofficial tally). I think fans are back to loving the game. The Yankees have won five World Series championships since the strike, and two teams that hadn’t won in generations, The Red Sox and White Sox, finally returned to glory. And last night, another shocking story line in MLB history...the National League won an All-Star game for the first time since 1996! It can be argued that baseball has been in recovery for a few years now (in the post-strike era), but for whatever reason, last night’s game had me thinking about all of this as I realized I was enjoying the game. I may be late to the party, but welcome back, baseball.
It was 16 years ago when the unimaginable occurred...the Major League Baseball season came to a non-climactic close in the middle of August with no winners and leaving everyone feeling like losers. Since then, Major League Baseball has notched its way back into my heart. There have been ups and downs along the way. You may remember the sensationalized home run race in 1998 between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa? Of course that was tarnished a few years later by what we all suspected was going on the whole time...the steroids scandal.
In the last decade, all four of the ‘90s expansion teams (Tampa Bay, Florida, Arizona, and Colorado) made a World Series appearance and two of those teams even won (Arizona in ‘01 and Florida in ‘03...which also won it all in ‘97)! How’s that for competitive balance? Sure, the Yankees make any non-Yankees fan a bit bitter with their free-spending ability, but out of respect for the late George Steinbrenner, we’ll not focus on that for now.
I think my point is...indeed, baseball is back. For the most part, the steroids mess is behind us, no one is talking about contraction anymore, and the pitching has been phenomenal this year...basically three perfect games in the first half of this season (yes, I’m counting the Galarraga blown call game, the imperfect perfect game, in my unofficial tally). I think fans are back to loving the game. The Yankees have won five World Series championships since the strike, and two teams that hadn’t won in generations, The Red Sox and White Sox, finally returned to glory. And last night, another shocking story line in MLB history...the National League won an All-Star game for the first time since 1996! It can be argued that baseball has been in recovery for a few years now (in the post-strike era), but for whatever reason, last night’s game had me thinking about all of this as I realized I was enjoying the game. I may be late to the party, but welcome back, baseball.