Baseball

Throughout this year and years past I have, as a Yankee fan, been subject to a ton of misguided hatred towards my favorite baseball team. This usually makes me angry and argumentative. I have written countless comments in defense of the Yankees, ex-Yankee players, and Yankee ownership.

The thing that really makes me sick however, is when people attribute any illegal indiscretion with a team or as something that is to be expected from a team. 

Welcome to the final edition of the Cubicle GM MLB Power Rankings for 2009. While the MLB rankings may be coming to a close, be sure to check in next week for our playoff predictions column.

If you haven’t had your fill of Power Rankings, be sure to check out our NFL rankings.

He sure doesn't look like Superman, but Ryan Madson sure is pitching like him.

With a fastball reaching 97 to 98 mph in the ninth inning, Madson pitched a two-inning save to preserve the Phillies 7-4 victory Tuesday over the Houston Astros.

Phillies rookie left-hander J.A. Happ improved to 12-4 with the win.

Coupled with the Florida Marlins' 5-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves, the Phillies' magic number dropped from three to one.

A victory tonight and the Phillies will capture their third-straight NL East crown.

Eric Wedge inherited a young and talented baseball team seven years ago when he took over as manger of the Tribe.

After a season of massive underachieving and general hopelessness, the Cleveland Indians have fired manager Eric Wedge.

Wedge, who came to helm of the Tribe in 2003, led the team to within one win of a World Series appearance in 2007.

That year's squad held a three games to one lead over the eventual world champion Boston Red Sox before collapsing and losing three in a row (a meltdown that, to this writer, is strangely not grouped with the other infamous Cleveland sports disasters), ending Wedge's most successful year as manager of the Indians.

In 1964 the Philadelphia Phillies, under manager Gene Mauch, were having their best season in nearly 15 years.

Led by pitching ace Jim Bunning, who threw a perfect game that year, and slugger Richie Allen, they had a six game lead in the National League with ten games to go; the pennant and a World Series date with the New York Yankees seemed safely theirs.

The Phillies then proceeded to lose ten straight games and the N.L. crown to the St. Louis Cardinals. It was an epic collapse that Philadelphia fans bitterly remember to this day.

Do mine eyes deceive me, or are these the same Toronto Blue Jays from earlier this year?

For the second night in a row, Toronto's offense was firing on all cylinders and the starting pitching put forth a great effort to keep the team in the ballgame.

And Adam Lind is a beast.

If it wasn’t for Jonathan Papelbon’s plunking in the top of the ninth, Lind had a legitimate shot at hitting four home runs in one game.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Eric Wedge will reportedly be fired as the manager of the Cleveland Indians today.

There are few who would dispute that Wedge needed to go, but just how much of what went so wrong for the 2009 Indians was his fault? Perhaps not as much as he has been blamed for, but certainly enough to merit his dismissal.  

It’s that time of year again, where football begins to saturate every possible media source. Many baseball fans have long given up on the season and have moved on to football.

To me, this is one of the most disappointing times during the year. Too many people have given up on one of the most thrilling aspects of Major League Baseball, October baseball. 

It is understandable when you live in a town where the baseball season is over almost before it begins.

Trust me. I get it. I am from Cincinnati.