NIAGARA FALLS, NY – Happy Monday to everybody. Today I’m going to live up to the “sports rain man” name by being a little bit all over the place and actually not sticking to New York topics. On the menu today: World Baseball Classic, Mets Payroll, Sabres Playoff Push.
The World Baseball Classic
This is baseball’s version of the World Cup, and it has had a heck of a run. As crazy as it sounds, this thing seemed to start like 10 years ago, but it does seem to get better every time it occurs.
Despite averaging no less than 10 runs in their previous five games, the Dominican Republic only got one run against the USA in the semifinal last night. The USA won 2-1. It was an instant classic—a pitcher’s duel—and nobody saw that coming.
The other semifinal features two surprise teams: Venezuela and Italy. Venezuela shocked everybody when they beat the defending champions and repeated that feat against powerhouse Samurai Japan. Somehow Japan went up 5-0, and then later was down 7-5. Japan wasn’t allowed to let their star player, Shohei Ohtani, pitch as part of his agreement with the Dodgers—since this would be his first real season pitching—and it turned out to be the difference, because the Japanese bullpen couldn’t do much. So congrats to Venezuela for their win.
Venezuela will be going up against Italy, which is a unique challenge. Italy is the Cinderella of the tournament. They even managed to beat the USA in pool play. The main thing behind Italy right now is their bats. And if you’re wondering, yes, a large number of Italian Americans or players of Italian descent who are American and play baseball here have signed up to play for Italy. Oddly enough, it’s a lot of players from the minors. But this team is raking, and raking something fierce. They don’t necessarily have the arms to compete with everybody else, but they’re looking to put up double digits every game—or close to it—and that is what has kept them alive. We’ll see what happens in that semifinal.
NY Mets Payroll
I was in a friend’s bar discussing baseball payrolls and how large the Dodgers’ payroll was. I told him I was a Mets fan, and he brought up that the Mets had the second-highest payroll. I thought he was kidding, but according to Professor Google, it apparently is true.
I didn’t realize that the Mets had added so much salary, considering that they traded away Brandon Nimmo and let Pete Alonso go to the Cardinals. But it seems that guys like Marcus Semien, Bo Bichette, Luis Robert Jr., and Freddy Peralta have all increased the salaries. Instead of one big name, they’ve added a cast of moderate to really good guys demanding a lot of salary, plus they’ve still got some salary due to guys that has to slide off the books.
I agree with… well, I’m not a huge David Stearns fan, so I’m not that excited to see the season, and I don’t believe it will click—although I do hope so. We’ll see if all this big money has been spent well.
Sabres Playoff Push
The Buffalo Sabres are currently number one in the Atlantic Division, although they’re not near the Atlantic Ocean. And they’re number two in the East overall. This is their first legit playoff opportunity since the 2010-2011 season, which is 15 years ago.
They were expected to maybe sneak back into the playoffs, but not to win their division. And now we’re seeing what is inevitable: the clash of the fans. The diehards who were still going to the games when the team was only getting 20, maybe 30 wins. The long-suffering fans who maybe weren’t going to the stadium but were watching on TV and paying attention. And the fair-weather/Johnny-come-latelys who all of a sudden are making Sabres posts and dusting off their Michael Peca jerseys.
I’ve been a fan of teams that have been terrible for a long time and dealt with droughts—my Knicks, my Mets, my Jets are still in the longest drought in professional sports in America, well of the Big Four. So I know how these long-suffering fans feel.
However, my answer to everybody is to just let these fair-weather fans and Johnny-come-latelys join the group. Yes, yes, I know—they couldn’t name anybody on the team from five years ago. And I know they haven’t really proven their fanhood. But we have to let them experience this in order for it to be fully enjoyable for us and to grow a new generation of diehards and long-suffering fans. So we must welcome them with open arms—but there’s nothing wrong with reminding them that they weren’t there for all the dark days.
Thanks for reading, the Big Aristotle is up tomorrow. Make sure to leave a comment below.
