MLB

          Magic, skill, or luck? Destiny, a fluke, or divine intervention? There are quite a few played out terms that can be used to describe the result of the National League Divisional Series between the Reds and the Giants. I’ll go with “historic comeback of epic proportions.”           

            The Reds took the first two games of the series in San Francisco. Not only did the Reds win the two games and take a 2-0 advantage going back home to Cincinnati for 3 games, they won handily. The Giants only managed to scrape across two runs in the two games. The Giants left San Francisco more disheveled than Brian Wilson’s beard. Their offense was so bad that the Reds’ starters looked like Cy Young-caliber pitchers.

Would it surprise you to find out that, by at least one measure, Alex Rodriguez is one of the best postseason hitters of his generation?

Because of his reputation for choking, people are often stunned to find out that A-Rod has a career 1.033 OPS in ALCS and World Series play.   Almost all of his struggles at the plate have come in the ALDS, which is an important part of the postseason but not normally the place where legends are made.

But Alex Rodriguez is different, as his entire career seems to be defined by struggles that have obscured one of the great careers that baseball has ever seen. 

Much like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football before Lucy pulls it away, people always seem to be moving the bar for greatness so it is just out of A-Rod’s reach.

Miguel Cabrera is an artist with a baseball bat. He paints pictures with his batting stroke, much like his name sake the famous artist /painter Miguel Mateo Maldonado y Cabrera did with his paint brush. Miguel Mateo the painter, (1695-1768) was recognized as the greatest in all of New Spain, which today is Mexico. One Cabrera with a brush and one Cabrera with a baseball bat, both men painted in strokes of greatness. Until someone comes along to take the Triple Crown Miguel Cabrera is the greatest hitter in baseball. Carl Yastrzemski had the great honor of being the last Triple Crown winner since 1967, 45 years ago. This fact alone makes Miguel Cabrera’s achievement a Mount Everest experience. There are only a few who can claim the Triple Crown in Major League Baseball’s history.

The only thing more frustrating than being a Jets fan last Sunday was being an American.

As excruciating as it was to watch the Jets return to preseason form and completely ignore the end zone, it was worse to watch the American golfers slowly sink (unlike their putts), one after another, on their “home” course at Medinah.

As far as I’m concerned, Davis Love III is as good a coach as the team has had. Any coach who can work the two-day foursome matches to get his team a four-point lead heading into singles has to be applauded.

At that point it’s up to the individuals. After all, golf is an individual game. And the bottom line is, when the pressure was on, the Americans simply didn’t come through. Whether it was Jim Furyk’s putter or Phil Michelson’s normally reliable short game, the Americans didn’t hit the clutch shots while their European opponents nailed one after another.