Baseball

This time it's official. Mike Quade is the manager, not interim manager, of the Chicago Cubs.

The announcement today that Mike Quade would return as Cubs manager and be given a two year contract with a team option for a third year, is not all that surprising. But it is disappointing.

While the reports are saying that Quade has had the interim label removed from his title, in essence any coach or manager in every sport is interim. They are all hired to be fired. Heck, truth be told, as humans we are all interim.

Before the game yesterday, Cliff Lee facts were trending on Twitter (#cliffleefacts). Some of the facts were ridiculous, such as "Cy Young won five Cliff Lee Awards", and "Neftali Feliz does not have to come to the game when Cliff Lee pitches, because Cliff Lee needs no closer."

This just in: Cliff Lee is good. I mean really good.

Cliff Lee could pull a Ron Burgundy right now: "Hey everyone, come see how good I look!"

Sometimes when you are getting ready to stare fate in the face, you may not be ready for the outcome.  Especially if you've seen it before.

Enter the New York Yankees.

When Josh Hamilton grounded out to end Game 1 on Friday night, a game where the Texas Rangers let a 5-0 lead slip away in their own ballpark to the dreaded New York Yankees, eventually losing the game 6-5, I sent the following message to my friend via Facebook chat:

"Series over."

"Yup," he replied.

Because there was no way the Rangers were going to be able to recover from a loss like that in a seven-game series. 

It was unclear which starter would go in game three for the Yankees after the ace they courted in a trade earlier this year jilted them again with yet another magnificent playoff performance.

The worst shut out home loss in Yankee history came during a start for their left hander who is the most prolific winners in MLB playoff history: Andy Pettitte.

The opposing lefty laced them with cut fastballs and knuckle curves while taking a two-run lead into the top of the ninth.

It was only a couple weeks ago when many experts had the New York Yankees as a lock to make it to the World Series and defend their title. Unfortunately, for the Yankee faithful, no one told the Texas Rangers.

The Rangers have certainly not been intimidated by the Yankees bloated payroll and 27 World Series titles. They haven't been phased by their previous nine losses in ten postseason games to the Yankees before this season. The 2010 Texas Rangers are not your daddy's Texas Rangers.

Once again, Los Angeles Angels' highly touted prospect Brandon Wood is proving he can master the art of hitting at the minor league level. Problem is, it doesn't resonate at the major league level.

Yankee bobo Michael Kay was at it all weekend long. He mentioned that Cliff Lee is cheating with that resin cap, and then he talked about how it was all over for the Rangers after the Yankees won in Game 1.

This is the type of analysis we get from a play-by-play man and talk-show radio host in town. Is it any wonder why Kay gets ripped often by Phil Mushnick and Bob Raissman?

It has been a while since I last penned an article here on the great B/R, so I felt like I owed it to the readers here to break away from the old and bring in the new.

That included a completely new persona, which was to be named Tecumseh's Alcove (I am a history major after all), but it is a lot harder to create a profile here nowadays, so what was the point when I have old reliable sitting around?