Baseball

Sometimes I wish baseball would get with the program.

It just perplexes me that Bud Selig allows one league to play one style of baseball and the other league to play another style of baseball.

The disconnect between the style of play is all over one position: the DH.

The American League has it, the National League doesn't, hence the different style of play in both leagues.

With the World Series now going on, one league's players are always at a disadvantage because each home ballpark calls for a different adherence to the rules.

On Friday morning, the Chicago Cubs introduced their new owners to the media and the world with a press conference from a rainy Wrigley Field. The 35 minutes of questions and answers was informative, humorous, and encouraging for not only Cubs fans, but any baseball fans.

Tom Ricketts, the leader of the Ricketts Family, gave a brief introduction statement in which he outlined three points for Cubs fans under which they will work moving forward:

1. "We're going to win a World Series"

• Year: 2002
• Record: 55-106
• Win Percentage: .342
• Win Percentage Change: -65 from the year before
• Run Differential: -289
• Pythagorean Record: 52-109
• AL Finish: 14th of 14 teams
• Manager: Phil Garner and Luis Pujols
• Best Transaction: Couple of decent moves here, actually. First, the Tigers drafted Curtis Granderson and Joel Zumaya in this draft, nothing to sneeze at there. Second, prior to the start of the season, they picked up Craig Monroe off of waivers.
  

In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of

There's nothing you can't do, now you're in New York

These streets will make you feel brand new

Big lights will inspire you, let's hear it for New York

This is the chorus (as sung by Grammy winner Alicia Keys) to Jay-Z's current hit single "Empire State of Mind."

Sometime around the sixth inning, I think it was the exact moment Ryan Howard asked home-plate umpire Jeff Nelson if he could hit off a tee, I realized who the guy pitching for the Yankees reminded me of.

The wirey build, the ink, the lizard-like features, that insane curve ball. This guy was just like A.J. Burnett, the Toronto Blue Jays star.

By keeping Cliff Lee in the game in the ninth inning after losing his shutout bid, Phillies skipper Charlie Manuel may have hurt the Philadelphia Phillies chances of winning a second straight World Series. 

Top of the eighth, Yankees lead 3-1. Jimmy Rollins at first, Shane Victorino at second, and one out. The legendary Mariano Rivera toes the rubber, then delivers the payoff pitch to Chase Utley.

In a move so bad that even the Fox broadcasters lampooned it, Charlie Manuel did not send the runners on the pitch. The Yankees turned an easy, inning-ending double play, and Ryan Howard was left hanging in the on-deck circle.

But that wasn’t the stupidest decision Manuel made last night.

Los Angeles Angels pitcher, John Lackey stands to make a lot of money this winter.

Lackey, who won one game and posted an ERA just a shade above 2.30 in L.A.'s playoff run, will enter the free agent market as the top starting pitcher available.

I am so sick of ESPN telling me how football is better than baseball. Recently I read Bob Costas' book, Fair Ball . I have to say, it made me ill.