Horse Racing Not Desperate For Triple Crown Winner

by John Furgele

They say it every year, and when they do, you can sense the disappointment in the voice of the broadcasters.  And, after Oxbow won the 2013 Preakness Stakes, you could hear the resignation in NBC’s Tom Hammond, when he said, “for the 35th straight year, there will not be a Triple Crown winner in horse racing.”

Later that night I was viewing the local sports and the sportscaster—a good one—stated that horse racing is “desperate for a Triple Crown winner”, but with “Orb’s fourth place finisher, it won’t happen.”  We all know that winning the Triple Crown hasn’t happened since 1978 when Affirmed turned the trick.

The 1970s made attaining the Triple Crown look easy.  Secretariat in ’73, then Seattle Slew in ’77 and Affirmed in ’78.  In 1979, Spectacular Bid won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness—easily—before finishing third at the Belmont Stakes.  Even with that defeat, as an 11 year old, I viewed that as minor setback and figured the 1980s would see at least three, maybe four Triple Crown winners. 

Of course, it hasn’t happened, and there are a myriad of reasons as to why it hasn’t happened, and since horses dont’ talk and don’t give interviews, there will always be some mystery to be sure.

Every year, you hear it, that horse racing needs a Triple Crown winner in the worst way, to save what some call a dying sport.  And, every year, I chuckle and think quite openly…..why?

Let’s be honest, will a Triple Crown winner really save horse racing?  What will it really do?  Moreover, how will it be measured?  If a horse wins the Triple Crown, does attendance increase at Aqueduct on February 15th?  Do more people flock to Churchill Downs for the Stephen Foster Handicap?  Does the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park in the fall attract over 50,000 fans? 

What would ESPN do?  Would they devote huge segments to stakes races on Saturdays and Sundays?  WIll they send a crew out to cover the draw for the Travers Stakes, the Haskell Invitational or the Pennsylvania Derby?  Will TV ratings soar through the roof?  Would there be a Horse Racing Show of the Week every Saturday to showcase the Ohio Derby and the West Virginia Derby?

The Kentucky Derby gets a very nice TV rating, this year it was somewhere between 9.7 and 10, which is quite good.  But, even with Orb’s convincing win, a win that got the experts excited and thinking Triple Crown, the Preakness rating is certain to be lower, and that’s with the Triple Crown hope still alive.  Had Orb won, the casual American would probably be intruiged enough to watch the Belmont Stakes on June 8th, but then what?

A Triple Crown winner would certainly be a popular story for a few days.  On Monday, all the morning wake up shows would have some sort of feature story on the impact and the perverbial, “does (insert horse)Triple Crown win insure horse racing’s survival?”  But, by Wednesday it would be over.  No more stories, no more talk, everybody going in a different direction.  A Triple Crown would not lead to ESPN and Fox Radio having horse racing segments on their daily shows. 

Would I like to see a horse win the Triple Crown?  Of course, it would be an exciting thing to see, and it would be nice to see the impact it would have, but horse racing is lucky.  Unlike a lot of niche sports, horse racing does have moments in the sun.  The Kentucky Derby is its grandest moment.  They get 150,000 plus at Churchill Downs, and as mentioned, good TV ratings.  Many in the northeast consider the first Saturday in May as the sure sign that spring and the warm weather are here to stay.  That’s one day.  

The Preakness may count as the second day.  As Preakness officials say, “the one thing the Preakness has that the Derby doesn’t is the Derby winner.”  Because of that, there is intruigue for the Preakness, because if the Derby winner wins at Pimlico, then…….

The Belmont Stakes, when a Triple Crown is on the line is the third big day in the sun for the sport.  We have seen it.  War Emblem in 2002, Funny Cide in 2003, Smarty Jones in 2004 and Big Brown in 2008.  New Yorkers don’t just show up in big numbers for anything.  A horse going for the Triple Crown brings over 100,000 to Long Island, and remember, no infield at Big Sandy.  With no Triple Crown on the line, expect 50,000 to 60,000.

The other day in the sun is the Breeder’s Cup, and even though the BC is really for the die hards with all the betting that can take place, the Classic gets enough attention that the casual fan does show some interest. 

Think about it.  At least three days in the sun, sometimes four.  How many of the other non-major sports get that many?  Auto racing gets two—the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500?  Major League Soccer, though growing, really doesn’t get one.  The MLS Cup simply doesn’t draw enough to warrant the big time coverage that the major horse racing events do. Even golf, a sport that people of all shapes and sizes can attempt to play has four at best—–the majors— and really it’s the Masters and U.S. Open that garner the big ratings.  Tennis has four majors, but only Wimbledon and the U.S. Open get Kentucky Derby like ratings.  The Australian Open plays their final at 3:30 AM on the east coast and the French Open is played on the red clay, a surface foreign to the average American sports fan.

In the end, I’m disappointed in the disappointment.  The Preakness was a great race with a great story.  The winning jockey, 50 year old Gary Stevens came back from a seven year retirement, and the 77 year old trainer, D. Wayne Lukas was by many written off as a guy who sends sub-par horses to Triple Crown races just for the attention.  There’s really no disappointment there at all.  Orb just isn’t that great of a horse and to win the Triple Crown, you have to be greater than great.  Seattle Slew was great, Affirmed was great, but Spectacular Bid and Point Given were not.  It’s plain and it’s simple.

The sport of horse racing has limitations, limitations that a Triple Crown winner will not help it overcome.  But, despite its limitations ,several times a year, the sport puts on a fantastic show.  It will happen again.  One of these years, a colt, gelding or filly will rise up and sweep the Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont and the country will celebrate it.

Briefly.

Preakness Should be Fun

by John Furgele

The best day of the American sports calendar, the Kentucky Derby, ended with Orb coming away with a convincing victory in the 139th run for the roses.  Orb, son of Malibu Moon, was, as they say, much the best over the slop at Churchill Downs.  Orb will be the convincing favorite when the posts are drawn this Wednesday for the 138th runnning of the Preakness States at old Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

While the Kentucky Derby is the most famous race in our country, the Preakness Stakes is the most important.  Many will dispute that, but the Preakness, because it’s the middle jewel, in essence, holds all the cards to lure in the American public.  Orb is the only horse that can win the Triple Crown, a feat, that most know, has not been accomplished since Affirmed ran down Alyday in 1978.  If Orb wins the Preakness, it’s on to Belmont Park and the Belmont Stakes.  The buildup will be there, the frenzy also.  If Orb wins this Saturday, attendance for the Belmont Stakes likely gets over 100,000; if he doesn’t win, the crowd is likely to be 50,000 to 60,000. 

The Derby is a great betting race.  There are 20 starters and Orb was the favorite at 5-1, meaning a win pays at least $12.00.  At the Preakness, Orb might be a 2-1, or something like 4-5, meaning a win might pay $6.00 or less.  The Preakness field may reach the maximum of 14, with some new shooters and some returnees from the Derby.  But, betting aside, the general public will be rooting for Orb to win to set the stage for the mighty Belmont.

Winning the Derby and the Preakness is not as hard as it might seem.  It’s been done 12 times since 1978, but winning the finale at Big Sandy has been impossible—-thus far.  Last year, I’ll Have Another won both, but because of a leg injury, never made it to the starting gate.  Big Brown, aka Big Clown, made it in 2008, but faltered badly, and was eased up before the finish line.  The most heartbreaking attempt was Smarty Jones in 2004.  Smarty led most of the race, but was cut down by Birdstone in the final sixteenth of a mile.  It’s a race where you watch on You Tube and still hope and believe Smarty Jones will win.

Orb certainly has the pedigree to win the Preakness and the Belmont.  The son of Malibu Moon is trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, owned by Janney and Phipps and lives and trains at Belmont Park, a tricky facility to say the least.  When a longshot wins the Derby, it may be exciting, but those who follow the sport aren’t excited, because deep down, they know a 50 to 1 Mine That Bird probably isn’t good enough to win three major races in a five week span. 

Orb could do it.  He will be challenged.  If he wins Saturday, he would go to the Belmont and his brother may be there waiting for him.  Freedom Child romped to a 13 length victory in the $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont yesterday.  Like his brother, he has the same father and appears to enjoy running in the slop.  He won easily in 1:49 and change for 1 1/8 miles and looked like he could have run for another half mile or so.  The “brotherly love” story could be a good one. 

Orb has the pedigree but also has the pressure and the only chance to win the Triple Crown.  But, he has to win the most important race, the table setter.

The Preakness.

Do We Overmourn?

by John Furgele
April 21, 2013

It has been a difficult five months for the American way of life.  That life includes being able to go to school and run a road race without any worries.  Yes, little Stevie may throw up in lunch, but school should be a fun, character building event.  The same for road racing.  You gather, warm up, run, socialize, then head home, no muss, no fuss.

Until Monday, road racing was like that, but then two bombs went off at the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring over 200.  It has been a long, tough week for all of us, especially those in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  Americans are a resilient bunch and there will be a Boston Marathon in 2014, and there will be road races each and every weekend for years to come.  The motivation behind the attacks to me, is always unsure—-do they want to simply get attention, prevent a future event or just protest against the freedom that the American way of life offers?

School shootings became popular after Columbine in 1999, and after Newtown, we have seen just how tragic and even polarizing they can be.  There will likely be another one no matter how hard we try to prevent it.  In fact, one wonders why they don’t happen more?  As a free society, we crave freedom, desire freedom and demand freedom.  In a way, those 26 who perished in Newtown, died preserving that freedom that we want and demand.

The problem with these events is the attention that they create.  Now, they deserve the attention that they get, and love or loathe the media, they actually helped find and eventually quell the Boston Marathon bombers.  But, after the Newtown tragedy, the media trucks stayed there, camped out for weeks and depending on whom yo would ask, helped or hindered the healing process.  President Obama used the tragedy to attempt to push through gun legislation and eventually, Newtown became the dreaded political football.

This is a sensitive topic, one that needs to be dealt with carefully.  Most of us didn’t lose a child, so as sad as we may be, it can’t even begin to compare to the pain of those parents, and siblings.  The same can be said for the victims of Boston.

We are a divided country, in fact, this country is probably at its most divisive stage in in history.  As polarizing as the Reagan Era was, this era is beyond polarizing.  And, these tragedies underscore this.  I feel pain when I see the parents of the Newtown victims being interviewed, but I also question why they are being interviewed.

Since Newtown, there have been massive tributes to the victims.  The Newtown kids went to the Super Bowl, athletes wore names and numbers on the shoes, hats and helmets.  This is not wrong, but is it overdone?  Do we, as a society overmourn or even celebrate death.  I’ve asked this question to people and the standard answer is that we can’t forget what happened, or these are kids, or how would you feel?  I get all of it.

But, who’s watching all these tributes, memoriams and celebrations?  Were those Boston bombers paying attention?  Did they see all the attention given to the Newtown 26?  Did they see that a special marker was going to be placed at mile 26 (.2 miles before the finish line) in memoriam of the 26 Newtown victims?

My guess is yes that they did see all the attention and they decided that they were sick of it, or decided that they, too could gain some glory for years to come if they could pull off a dastardly deed that they ultimately did on Patriots Day.

When I see all the tributes I get sad and give thanks that my kids and I are safe.  But, as I watch, I wonder how many sinister people are watching and fears creep in.  Killing will never be an understood drama in this country or others, but people kill for different reasons.  For those who kill for attention, or a cause, one should be able to see why the overmourning of a Newtown or the Boston Marathon could have negative effects.

No society is more free, no society will ever be freer, but there is a price to pay, but hopefully, our society will be careful. Mourning is needed, it is necessary, but we don’t want it to serve as a catalyst.

It’s On Now

by John Furgele

Let the hype begin.  I’ll Have Another’s glorious stretch run to take the Preakness Stakes has left horse racing fans salivating for what will be a complete frenzy at the Belmont Stakes on June 9.  With the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness under his belt the California colt can capitivate America with one more win.  But, that win will come in the most grueling test of them all, the Belmont Stakes.  Not only is the longest, at 1 1/2 miles, but it comes at the end, the third race in five weeks.  Few horses can pull this off, as we know, it hasn’t been done since 1978.

Let the frenzy begin.

Why Do I Root for Manny Ramirez

by John Furgele

He’s been called a lot of things, cancer, a term I hate when describing people, and he’e been caught using PEDs twice, but for some reason, I am hoping that Manny Ramirez does well with the Oakland A’s in 2012.  Why, I don’t know, but he is an awfully good hitter and based on his career stats, he should be a Hall of Famer. 

He sounded contrite this week as the A’s players reported to camp, but who knows how he’ll act once the real games begin.  He has to serve a 50 game suspension and wouldn’t be eligible to play until May 30, but we know one thing and that is that Manny is charismatic enough to generate interest amongst the media.

Say what you want about Ramirez, but he has been a winning player.  He played on those Indians teams that made the playoffs year after, played on two world championship teams in Boston and led the Dodgers to the NLCS.  Will he do that in Oakland?  Probably not, but for some reason, I hope he can rejuvenate and reinvent himself in the other city by the bay.

NFL Bowl Bids Released

by John Furgele

To nobody’s surprise, the Green Bay Packers are number one in the polls and thus, are the top ranked team heading into the NFL bowls.  The Pack will play New England in the Rose Bowl, while number 2 San Francisco at 10-2 heads to the Sugar Bowl to take on the Baltimore Ravens.  There will be 8 bowl games this year, and one bowl eligible team, the New York Giants were not selected to a game this year. 

Here are the matchups:

Rose:  Green Bay (12-0) vs. New England (9-3)

Sugar:  San Francisco (10-2) vs. Baltimore (9-3)

Orange:  New Orleans (9-3) vs. Pittsburgh (9-3)

Fiesta:  Dallas (7-5) vs. Houston (9-3)

Outback:  Atlanta (7-5) vs. New York Jets (7-5)

Capital One:  Chicago (7-5) vs. Denver (7-5)

Gator:  Detroit (7-5) vs. Oakland (7-5)

Holiday:  Cincinnati (7-5) vs. Tennessee (7-5)

 

NFL Bowl Bids Coming

by John Furgele

What if the NFL was run like college football?  What if, after 12 games, teams were selected to play in “NFL Bowl games, ala the Orange and Rose Bowl?  Well, next week, I will have my annual NFL bowl pairings that you all will look forward to.

Stay tuned to Johnny228.

The Nuttiness of the Big East

by John Furgele

As college football continues to court new members to its conferences, the Big East remains the big uneasy.  With Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia set to bolt to the ACC and the Big 12, the conference is desperate to hang on, to recruit enough new members to solidify itself and its coveted BCS bowl berth.

But, look who they’re trying to add.  Navy, Army, Air Force?  The first two are Division 1-AA (now called FCS) at best, how do they add to the conference, or more importantly, how do they make the Big East morlike the Big Ten or the SEC?  And, there is also talk of adding Houston, SMU and Central Florida from Conferene USA.  Just because your conference has 12 teams, doesn’t mean you get to keep your BCS bowl berth.  The Mid American Conference has 13 teams—-14 next season—and they’re far from a BCS bid league, but they might more than hold they’re own against current Big East members.

One has to wish that somebody would step in and put a halt to all this conference realignment discussion, and given the wake of the recent Penn State sex scandal, bigger won’t necessarily mean better.  The Big East would like to add Boise State and BYU to its league for “football only,” but how much sense does this really make?  Boise State has a nice program and they would likely win the Big East, but nobody is convinced that Boise State would be a top 5 program is they played in one of the major conferences.  That’s not a knock on the Broncos, but they would not go 10-2 or 11-1 each year if they played in the Big 12, Big Ten, SEC or Pac 12, no chance.  Sure, if they played in the Big East, they might go undefeated in conference play and may do equally as well in the ACC, but adding Boise State does not really strengthen your league. 

The same can be said about BYU, now in its first year as an independent.  They went 12-0 in 1984 and were voted national champions after beating a 6-5 Michigan team in the Holiday Bowl, but how strong as BYU been over the last 20 years.  Theyhave had some 11-2 seasons to be sure, but they really haven’t gone out there and gotten that signature win over the years.  How does BYU, a non AQ school suddenly make your conference an AQ school?

Houston and Central Florida are interesting studies.  For some reason, Houston, the fourth or fifth bigest city in the United States has been left out of most major conference expansion plans and I’m not quite sure why.  They must have burned a bridge down somewhere, because all the talk is about expanding your geography to get more television viewers and one would think that adding Houston would do just that.  It’s Houston, a big city in a big state with a rich tradition of producing tremendous high school talent.  I would think that they would be a perfect candidate for the Big 12, a natural replacement for the departing Texas A&M.  The rumor is that Texas AD DeLoss Dodds would die before adding Houston, so obviously, there is some leftover hostility from the old Southwest Conference days.  But, to me, Houston would be an attractive candidate for any conference. 

Central Florida is also intruiging because of the state in which they play.  Like Texas, Florida produces a vast amount of high school talent, and UCF has the 45,000 seat on campus stadium to attract players and TV cameras.  But, on the field, UCF has never been great, and even so, they still have to compete against the others Floridas:  Florida State, Florida, Miami and the littllier ones like Florida Atlantic and Florida International.  But, like Houston, Orlando is a big town with people,so it might help.

As for Navy, Army and Air Force, I just don’t see it.  Navy has been going to bowl games for many years, but nobody massages its schedule better than them.  Yes, they have beaten Notre Dame plenty of times in recent years, but they also have a lot of soft tosses on their docket.  Rice, Duke, Delaware, Tulane and other bottom feeders of the 1-A spectrum.  Of those team listed, Delaware may be the best and they play in 1-AA.  Navy is really somewhere between 1-AA and 1-A, and they would add nothing to an expanded Big East. 

Ditto for Army.  Like Navy, they can’t recruit the big, blue chipper and Army and Navy are both better suited for the MAC, or to remain as they are; an independent.  That way, they can effectively schedule their games so they can get to 6 or 7 wins and get the small bowl bid that will help them recruit solid football players.  And, if anybody can remember, both Navy and Army were once members of Conference USA, and they found out that adhereing to a conference was very difficult, but in their case, the money from the Big East might be too hard to pass up.

Air Force is also a big reach.  What do they bring?  For some reason, Air Force has had more success against bigger time 1-A oppoents than Army and Navy, but like them, they do have recruiting restrictions that aren’t necessarily the right fit for BCS football conference.  Nothing against Air Force, but would they excite the college football fan?  Would Air Force at South Florida bring eyeballs to the set?  What about Air Force-Rutgers?  Air Force-Cincinnati?  I can see a Cincinnati-Kansas State future Big 12 matchup, but Army-Louisville?  I don’t know.

The raiding of the small conferences is bad for college athletics.  I would hate to see Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference be weakened, or worse, dissolved for the greed of the big six.  CUSA is not a power conference, but it is a very competitive league with a nice little championship game and a nice solid 12 team structure.  As a fan of college football, I would hate to see that disappear.  SMU is just righting itself after the old death penalty sanctions from the 1980s and now, they want to go to the Big East?  The MWC has always been a good league, particularly in basketball, the forgotten sport in all of this.  In basketball, they have a great conferenc etournament in Las Vegas, and in football, they have had BCS bowl winners in TCU.  Why break that up?  Why force Boise State fans to drive to Rutgers for a Big East game?

It’s not normal, but what is normal these days?

Is the End Near for Joe Paterno?

by John Furgele

Until recently, most college football fans did not know who Jerry Sandusky was, and if the world was right, most still wouldn’t.  But, that all changed when the longtime Penn State assistant football coach was arrested and charged with numerous sexual assaults with young boys over a 15 year period.  Sandusky was known as a defensive guru, helping the Nittany Lions win two national championships in the 1980s.  In 1982, they effectively contained Hershel Walker and the Georgia Bulldogs, and in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, still the most watched college football game of all-time, Sandusky’s scheme induced Heisman Trophy winning QB Vinny Testaverde into throwing five interceptions.

As a football coach, Sandusky knew his stuff, but as a human, well, that remains in deep down.  It appears that the coach used his power to take adavantage of young boys.  When one is charged with deviant sexual misconduct, it makes everybody wince.  Many saw Sandusky as the eventual heir apparent to Joe Paterno, the now 84 year old coach at the school.  But, in 1999, Sandusky abruptly retired to devote more time to his Second Mile, a program that aided troubled boys. 

It seems fairly apparent that Sandusky was using the Second Mile to find young boys who he then could take advantage of and have sex with.  In 2002, a then grad assistant testified that he saw a young boy, about 10 or 11 with his hands pressed against a shower wall while Sandusky was having anal sex with him.  This was three years AFTER Sandusky retired, but because of his status, he was allowed to use the facilities and often brought boys from the program to the school. 

After the alleged incident, the grad assistant told Paterno, who then reported it his athletic director Tim Curley, but that’s where it seemed to end.  The police were never called and the only action the university took was to bar Sandusky from using the lockerroom in the future. 

For most coaching icons, it usually doesn’t end well.  Bobby Bowden was forced out and deep down, he didn;t want to go.  He knew it was probably time, but in his heart, he felt he could make one more run at a national championship.  But, Bowden retired because the football team’s perfromance was on the decline, not because of a sexual scandal. 

Last year, several members of the Ohio State football team, including star QB Terrel Pryor were suspended for giving memorablia in exchange for tatoos and other comepensation.  It was reported to coach Jim Tressel, who covered it up.  The result:  Tressel resigned over the summer.  So, the question is simple.  If Tressel was forced out over trading memorabilia for tatoos, how does Joe Paterno survive this cover up?

We have heard that Paterno is not under investigation, and we have heard that Paterno did the right thing by alerting his superior, athletic director Tim Curley.  But, Paterno should have done more.  Why didn’t he call the police?  Why didn’t he confront Sandusky?  Why didn’t he follow up and get on Curley for not taking serious action?  Simply reporting the incident may fulfill all legal obligations, but what about a person’s moral compass?  This is Joe Paterno, perhaps the most popular Pennsylvanian today.  For him to stop merely at just reporting a sick incident to his AD, to me, indicates that he was covering things up.  We keep hearing that were always “whispers about coach Sandusky,” but when it came time to deal with a very serious incident, nothing was done.

Paterno is a college coaching icon, and at 84, he has always been too stubborn to retire.  The administration was always in a dilemma.  Most of his supporters wish he would step down, simply because at his age, it’s time to retire, but no one wants to be the one who forced Paterno out.  It happened at Florida State, but eventually those who wanted Bowden out got him out.  It’s tougher to do that at Penn State.  It’s a more homogenous state, and most who live in Pennsylvania, are from Pennsylvania.  They grew up with Paterno prowling the sidelines and they are loyal to him and the program.  There is less passion in Florida, with many more transients and of course, Florida and Miami also playing football in the Sunshine State. 

For those who want Paterno out, they have the scenario.  He has to retire now, and in this case even his most ardent supporters will give in and accept that the time has come.  It’s a sad ending that hopefully, time can help heal.  You can’t blame Paterno for something that Sandusky allegedly did, that’s not fair, but the fact that nothing was done, well, there is some blood on his hands. 

Paterno has done wonderful things for the university and even today, is adored by the undergrads that attend the big school in State College.  That shouldn’t change, but there most be changes at the top of the football program, and it is time for Coach Paterno to step aside and leave the program, the regime to somebody new.  That will be hard to do,because Paterno has been there since 1966, head coach since 1969. 

it’s tough to go out the right way, in fact, is there a right way?  Most times, something drives a person out.  For some, it’s age, for others, effectiveness, and others it may be illness.  Joe Paterno is no exception to this.  Like everybody else, his time has come.  You just wish it woudl have been he who dictated the terms.

Road Kill

by John Furgele

Somewhere from above, Willie Stargell is smiling, so too, is Dave Parker and the rest of the” We Are Family Buccaneers”, the last road team to win a World Series Game 7.   In fact, as long as the roadies continue to lose these games, the now laughable Pirates will continue to get mentioned as the last roadie to conquer home opponent in a World Series finale.

Texas took a quick 2-0 lead, but after that, they went into a baseball coma, as the Cards, behind World Series MVP David Freese scored six unanswered runs to bag thier 11th world championship. 

The win ends an improbable run for the Redbirds, who played well down the stretch, and let’s be fair, needed a monumental collpase by the Atlanta Braves just to make the postseason.  The Red Sox collapse received more attention, but don’t kid yourself, the Braves was as bad, if not worse. 

As for the Rangers, they just couldn’t the 27th out and after taking a two run lead in the 10th, couldn’t get the 30th out, the outs they needed to capture their first title.  It will sting them for a long time, forever, unless they come through and win it all.  Of course, that’s what makes baseball great.  No taking a knee, no running out the clock, no scrubs checking in for garbage team, no clock.  You have to get the outs, or simply put, you don’t win. 

It was a compelling series that saw Albert Pujols have an epic game (don’t forget his leadoff double in the 9th in Game 6), Derek Holland pitch a gem, and David Freese become a household name, along with Allen Craig.  And, it also had the classic game in Game 6, a game for the ages.  Game 7 didn’t have the drama, but after Game 6, that would have hard to replicate. 

It is all over for now.  Pitchers and catchers will report in 13 weeks.