Naturally when I went to school this morning, the members of the Dallas faithful I share the lecture hall and lab with were a little quiet and obviously disappointed.  They know I spent a little time between the lines and in the dugout and that I write for this site, and so they come to me with their baseball-related queries.  I must have answered, “What the hell happened to Cliff last night, dude,” around 15 times.  My responses always started with something along the lines of, “Dude, he wasn’t all that bad.”  How could a start in which Cliff Lee, probably the premier pitcher in the game today, gives up six earned and retires only 14 batters not be regarded as disastrous?

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After a nerve-racking road win in Game 6 of the NLCS Saturday night in Philadelphia, Cody Ross of the San Francisco Giants was justifiably awarded the NLCS MVP trophy after torching the greatest playoff rotation ever assembled.  Ross got very hot at the right time, just like the Giants really.

My opinion of Ross has always been that he is a serviceable Major Leaguer with a chance at a decade of service.  He is athletic enough and is a good enough clubhouse guy to keep getting contracts.  The reason I write this, however, is to inform the world that the man called “Smiles” is a New Mexico native, and we are all very proud of him.

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I will admit that this article will probably interest Brett, Griff, and a handful of high school baseball players from Colorado and Utah who also frequent the Newschoolers forum…and literally no one else.   Sorry Arlo.  This is just what September and October mean to me: baseball playoffs and the anticipation of winter.  The title probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to very many readers, but these are a few nicknames of some of skiing’s greats.  Growing up the majority of sports media to which I subscribed were ski magazines, Internet forums devoted to skiing, and ski films.  I paid way more attention to the world of professional skiing than I did to the world of professional baseball until I was around 20.  At that time I found myself at school in Iowa playing baseball.  Iowa surprised me with something that at least resembled skiing in the form of a trash dumb covered in manmade, but it was far enough from the skiing that I knew that I let it go a little.  This time of year always brings me back to yesterdays and the days to come on the hill.  Griff and Brett are two of my favorite people in the world to ride with, so I am really glad that they also write for The Sombrero.  Anyway, with this piece I will compare a legendary skier to the Big Leaguers that I believe their personalities, talents, and styles most represent.

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Dominic Moreno, of Piedra Vista High School and the StrikeZone Cardinals, attended USA Baseball’s NTIS as a representative of the Mountain West region to compete for a spot with the U18 National Team.  He was not selected, but we all expect Dom to be one of the most heavily recruited players the 4-Corners region has ever produced.  He does everything well.  Low-90’s velocity with excellent command, a hammer breaker, and a highly advanced feel for a change with outstanding fade.

He will be hitting cleanup all year for PV just like he did nearly all of last year during the school’s title run.  He can play both corner spots adequately and is athletic enough to stay at third or move to right if called upon to do so.  Perhaps the most impressive part is the kid’s IQ.  He does very well in school and will probably finish as an Honor Grad.  He applies this intelligence to the game like no player his age I have ever met.  Someone is going to be very glad they signed Dominic Moreno.

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Before I begin really getting into this, I should state that I love and respect Derek Jeter.  Through his career, I have been about as up and down with the guy as any player in the game.  Nomar was without a question my favorite player during all of his years in Boston, and the man that he was while he was there is the image that I will always envision as the franchise guy.  Nomar was Christ-like while in Boston in my opinion, and so Jeter was the anti-Christ.  Once Nomar was traded, however, it became really easy to fall in love with Jeter.  Derek Jeter is everything baseball considers and hopes itself to be.  If you follow this site, you know that I previously mentioned that when Jeter retires, I think he should be handed the American presidency.  Forget that.  The man deserves a coronation.

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