Do you know what the best thing about baseball’s postseason is, besides the fact that the Yankees are no longer present in this one?  Anything can happen, and we fans get to witness it.  A career .265 hitter claimed on waivers in the middle of August bats .350 in the NLCS, belts 6 extra base hits (including 3 home runs), and wins the NLCS MVP Award.  A former drug addict turned AL MVP frontrunner misses almost the entire last month of the season just to come back strong and help handle the New York Yankees, at times without even swinging the bat, on his way to his own ALCS MVP Award. These are the reasons I watch. Well, that and the two phenoms that will be alternating time on the mound come Wednesday.

(more…)

Stan Musial Award (MVP)

National League:
First Place Vote – Joey Votto (Cincinnati)
Second Place Vote – Carlos Gonzalez (Colorado)
Third Place Vote – Albert Pujols (St. Louis)
Fourth Place Vote – Adrian Gonzalez (San Diego)
Fifth Place Vote – Troy Tulowitzki (Colorado)
Sixth Place Vote – Aubrey Huff (San Francisco)
Seventh Place Vote – Jason Heyward (Atlanta)
Eighth Place Vote – Roy Halladay (Philadelphia)
Ninth Place Vote – Jay Bruce (Cincinnati)
Tenth Place Vote – Ryan Zimmerman (Washington)

American League:
First Place Vote – Josh Hamilton (Texas)
Second Place Vote – Miguel Cabrera (Detroit)
Third Place Vote – Evan Longoria (Tampa Bay)
Fourth Place Vote – Paul Konerko (Chicago)
Fifth Place Vote – Robinson Cano (New York)
Sixth Place Vote – Delmon Young (Minnesota)
Seventh Place Vote – Carl Crawford (Tampa Bay)
Eighth Place Vote – Jose Bautista (Toronto)
Ninth Place Vote – Joe Mauer (Minnesota)
Tenth Place Vote – Adrian Beltre (Boston)

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.

(more…)

On any given baseball team there are endless off the field, inside jokes that permeate the clubhouse and in the end, define the team.  More often than not, the humor is completely spontaneous, childish and crude.  And it has to be.  With 162+ games in a season, it is foregone conclusion that every team will experience ups and downs.

The inside jokes and endless ragging on teammates are what keep a team optimistic  –yes, I know that actually having good players goes a long way, as well– in their darkest hour.  Similarly, when a team is winning and feeling good, the jokes are always more hilarious and enjoyable than they already are.  Every couple of years, there is a team whose jokes gradually become indicative of the team chemistry and synonymous with the overall success of the season.  And it is then that we truly see just how much being a part of that team means to the players.

This season, the Texas Rangers have had their clubhouse humor on full display in the form of the claw and antlers.  And considering that they are headed to the American League Championship Series for the first time in the organization’s history, it’s time that baseball fans familiarized themselves with the gestures and their meaning.

(more…)

There is much more to professional baseball, along with every other pro sport, than just the action taking place on the field. While it is the accomplishments and exploits between the foul lines that fans want to see, it is the out of site front office operations that are actually driving the billion dollar industry of baseball. An organization’s success is now determined as much by its balance sheets as it is by its box scores, and the recent happenings of the Texas Rangers provide a perfect example of when on and off-field performance can become mutually exclusive.

(more…)