Baseball

Proving the theory that there is no off-season in baseball, the Arizona Fall, Venezuelan Winter, Mexican Winter, and Dominican Winter Leagues are already up and running, even before the World Series ends.

The Arizona Fall League, Major League Baseball's official off-season league, is structured in such a way that teams send all their players to one team. This is not the case with the other leagues, which have no formal affiliation with the American game.

It's that time of year again for baseball fans to sit back and reflect on the year their favorite teams had, unless, of course, your favorite club is still alive in the playoffs.

For the rest of us, however, this time of year is the definition of hindsight being 20/20, as many of us look back at what went wrong for our teams.

As Royals fans, we have very little to talk about right now. 

Hell, most of us checked out sometime in June when it had become more than clear that the fast start was a mirage and that the air of respectability we thought was going to accompany the Royals resurgence had been knocked from our lungs. 

After Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa has reportedly signed a multi-year contract to return as the Cardinals skipper next year, St. Louis's front-office decided not to bring back hitting coach, Hal McRae.

Mark McGwire was named McRae's replacement by the Cardinal's front-office. McGwire's hiring would be his first return to baseball since 2001.

LaRussa's extension has not been officially announced but he is expected to make his return to the Cardinals sometime this week.

The phrase "age can be deceiving" now applies to the new Yankee Stadium. After several investigations by construction companies, the concrete ramps at the new Yankee Stadium have been found to have deep cracks. The new state-of-the-art home of the Yankees has only been open for about seven months. The cost of building George Stienbrenner's new palace cost the Yankees a total of $1.5 billion.

The New York Times has reported that both the Yankees are trying to see if there was anything wrong with the installation of the ramps or their design, when the stadium was first built.

Sometimes, all a manager can do is sit back and shake his head.

Joe Torre was forced to sit and watch a high-caliber team under perform and make too many mistakes in a forgetful 4-1 NLCS series loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.

In their four losses, the Dodgers actually outhit the Phillies 35-34.

Considering that they went 79-15 during the regular season when outhitting an opponent, that’s a pitiful result for the Dodgers.

The student has surpassed the teacher, so to speak.

Thirty-five-year-old Jed Hoyer is to be named the newest general manager for the San Diego Padres, replacing Kevin Towers who has held the position for the past 14 seasons.

The Padres were not expected to make a formal announcement over the weekend. Jeff Moorad, the newest Padres chief executive, did inform Towers that he would not be returning for the 2010 season.

One big factor that one has to accept, is that San Diego is not Boston. You do not have the luxury and the amenities that the Red Sox have.

After Game 6 of the ALCS was postponed due to rain, there was the Yankees veteran left-hander warming up in the outfield. He took sprints on the puddle-filled warning track.

It was as if Game 6 was still going to happen.

Andy Pettitte stood out there in an empty Yankee Stadium contemplating the importance of lifting his team to the World Series just one more time. 

The rain-soaked Pettitte later took a seat in the empty stadium. Yankee Stadium is most definitely not going to be empty for Game 6.

Yesterday, I was debating with some people about who should be starting game 6: Sabathia or Pettitte. My thinking was, since CC is on regular rest, you have to pitch him. You can't worry about who will be available for the World Series until you actually get there.

Their argument was, if it goes to a Game 7, you want CC pitching, and if it doesn't, you have him for Game 1 of the World Series. I definitely could see this line of reasoning, I just preferred to see the Yanks close it out tonight.