A Foregone Conclusion

The San Francisco Giants will be World Series champions

Easy to say now isn't it? 

The Detroit Tigers entered this World Series as the favorite to win in six games. I cringed at that line at first glance. Really? The Giants are riding an unmatched emotional tidal wave right now, and you can't just stop tidal waves.

But then I thought: Maybe Vegas is right. The Tigers have the best pitcher in the world, the best hitter in the world, and they just embarrassed the most prestigious franchise in the world. If Verlander pitches three times in a series, nobody can beat them right?

But then my baseball senses kicked back in. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I was an all-state caliber baseball player or even all-conference. Hell, I didn't even make all-division (still lose a little sleep over that). But up until college I had played the game all of my life and my baseball senses far outweigh my talent. Let me explain.

As I mentioned the other night, baseball is just a funny game. Is Barry Zito a better pitcher a better pitcher than Justin Verlander? Absolutely not. But on October 24th, 2012, Game 1 of the World Series, he was. That's what great about baseball. 

Baseball, more than any other sport, on any given night, talent can be completely excluded from any form of analysis or prediction. One team can play a game or even a group of games that drastically exceeds their ability. A player who has never hit over .300 in his life can suddenly hit .500 in the postseason. You rarely say, "Man, Blaine Gabbert really outplayed Tom Brady tonight." Or, "Wow, JJ Reddick just made Kobe Bryant look silly tonight." Yet that happens all the time in baseball. Pablo Sandoval is hitting better than Miguel Cabrera right now. Marco Scutaro (Marco Scutaro!) is the best hitter on the planet right now.

The more I think about, the more the Detroit Tigers were doomed at the start of the series. Sweeping the Yankees...great. That's awesome. But that was probably the worst possible result for them.

The Giants postseason run? Best possible result.

After going down 0-2 to the Reds in the NLDS, the Giants did the unthinkable--winning the next three on the road, reserving a series with St. Louis where they would have home-field advantage. 

Down three games to one, they did it again.

They won two in a row to force a Game 7, where a towel-waving, energy-infusing, max capacity crowd lifted their team to levels of baseball acumen that the players didn't know they possessed. 

The same Kyle Lohse who has gone five and two-thirds of one run ball just four days earlier, got bounced out of the game after two innings of a Giants hit barrage. 

With a 9-0 Giants lead going into the 9th, a relentless bombardment of rain seemed to hover around AT&T Park and meticulously avoid every other region in the San Francisco area. Somewhere, someone out there wanted to suspend this game. Puddles accumulated on the infield in an instant. You didn't even have enough time to process that instant before the field turned into diamond shaped reservoir in the next instant. But nothing was stopping this tidal wave.

Skip Schumaker grounded into a fielder's choice for the first out, and then after a John Jay strikeout for out number two, Fox focused their super slow-mo camera on Marco Scutaro--looking up to the sky and raising his arms in triumph, soaking in the rain as if it was the last drops of water left on Earth. 

Fittingly, Scutaro camped under a Matt Holliday pop-up to send the Giants to the World Series.

All the meanwhile, the Tigers sat 2,400 miles away awaiting their destination, soaking in the honorable feat of sweeping the New York Yankees. 

Imagine watching that though. You haven't played a baseball game in four days, and you are watching team riding an emotional ecstasy and performing at an inconceivably elite collective level. A level that drastically exceeded their talent. And now you have to travel to their place and try and beat them?

Doomed.

The Tigers didn't have any emotion in their series because they didn't need it. The Yankees were never in it. Once Jeter went down, the Yankees signed off. It was easy. They didn't have any momentum, their hitters weren't in a groove, and their pitchers weren't loose. 

Ask any baseball player--baseball is all about rhythm, about getting in a zone. A zone like Marco Scutaro's, where every pitch seems hittable and the ball just seems bigger. When there is a break in games like the Tigers, everything gets thrown off. The ball seems smaller and the plate seems wider.

For the Giants nothing was easy. They had to win three games in a row twice to even clinch a birth in the World Series. 

And now they are going to win it.

The Tigers are psyched out. They are probably thinking: "This team is out of their minds right now. They are possessed."  That's because the Giants are. 

It's the baseball zone. You start doing things that you can't even explain.  You square up a fastball that would wind up one-hopping the wall for a double on any other day--but on this day or this series, it clears the fence by twenty feet. You start throwing 95 instead of 90. You react to everything without even thinking about it. Something just takes over.

For the Giants, that something has taken over. That something is more powerful than a triple crown winner or pitcher that throws 100 mile per hour in the 9th inning.

Madison Bumgarner came into tonight's game losing both of his previous two postseason starts, allowing 10 runs in 8 innings. Tonight, he shut down the Tigers for seven. 

That's baseball.


-Chris Collins

Follow Chris @ChrisCollins127

Follow Chris and Pj @IceBathReport

Chris's Study Zone: Volume 3

Instead of doing accounting homework and starting one my 4 research papers due in the next 5 weeks....

-This may be a day late and a dollar short, but I am going to start this on a football note. We learned two things Sunday during the Giants-Redskins game:

1. Robert Griffin III is the real deal
2. Eli Manning isn't just an elite quarterback, he may be the best in the NFL

Seriously though, RG3 is unbelievable. I'll be honest, I was very "all of the people who think he's better than Luck need to shut up" at first, but that notion may actually be a reality. Obviously, we can't decide who is better off 6 games, keeping in mind that RG3 has a much better supporting cast. But there is not a more electrifying player in the National Football League than Robert Griffin III. Play zone, and he picks you apart. Play man, and he takes off for 30 yards. He has world-class speed and a world-class arm. How about his 4th and 10 scramble and chuck conversion with the game on the line? Or he absolute dime to Santana Moss for the go-ahead TD? As a Giant fan, I am scared to face this man for the next 10+ years. 

O, and his fellow rookie, runningback Alfred Morris is the league's second leading rusher. Yikes.

-Back to Eli though, I think every Giant fan (besides the idiots that curse him out Manning after every interception) had a shit-eating grin on their face when Eli got the ball with a minute and thirty seconds on the clock. I guess I've gotten greedy, but I just had that "Eli feeling" like we were winning that sucker. And we did. Yes, I said "we" because I consider myself a part of the Giants community.

There will always be those "Eli Moments" where he throws an interception where you say to yourself "wait, did that just happen?" But with the game on the line, two minute drill, I'm taking Eli Manning every time. Twenty-two times he has won a game facing a 4th quarter tie or deficit. He has beaten one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play football twice in the Super Bowl as a massive underdog. He made the greatest throw in Super Bowl history to propel the game winning drive, facing a 4th quater deficit. The guy is as clutch as it gets. 

Staying on football...

-Man, the Ravens got their ass beat. That was the greatest "don't writes us off after one loss" performance ever by the Texans. Joe Flacco was comically horrendous, and with Ray Lewis done for the year and pretty much the entire defense hurt, the AFC just got a lot worse than it already is.

-(Cue Bengals and Steelers to try and steal the AFC North)

Moving on...

-It's easy to say this now, but didn't you just get that feeling that with all of the Verlander hype going into tonight's game that something wasn't going to go as planned? I don't know maybe that was just me, but he got absolutely shellacked. Barry Zito somehow shutdown a vicious lineup with a fastball that topped out at 85mph. 85...most high schools have a pitcher that can hit 85. Pitching is such an interesting phenomenon. Verlander has a fastball that sits at 95, a slider that looks like this, and a changeup that isn't even fair. Yet...he gets hammered. That's why I love baseball. 

-KUUUNGGG FUUUU PANNNDAAAAA!!!!

-O, and add Marco Scutaro to the "former Met that becomes relevant when they leave" list. The only longer list pertaining to the Mets is the "All-Stars that come to the Mets and and become outrageously awful baseball players" list. Scutaro is silly hot right now. He hit .500 in the NLCS and added another two hits tonight. Why does this have to happen to us (Met fans).

-Lost in all of the Panda-Monium (that was good!! Can I patent that??!) and the shock of Justin Verlander getting shelled was Barry Zito's "F you all" performance. I truly admired it. I said before the game that they would need a heroic effort from Zito and boy did he deliver. After being awarded a monster seven year deal and pitching terribly for six years of it, after getting left off all three postseason rosters in the Giants 2010 World Series run, Zito pitches a gem in a game that completely changed the whole complexion of this series. Good for him.

-So excited for the NBA to start!!!!

-Not...

-I'll explain why I hate the NBA in a future column.

-For the love of God (I'm not even that religious) can we please have an NHL season. Hockey was just starting to gain some steam, starting to attract new fans, and now this son-of-a-bitch Gary Bettman and even-bigger-pricks owners have locked the players out. Show some respect. The players deserve it. 

That's all I got for tonight people. Pj and I are looking for new writers and contributors to take our blog to the next level. You can Facebook message me, tweet me @ChrisCollins127 or tweet at us (even though I handle the twitter) @IceBathReport, if you are interested. 

-Chris Collins

What Money Can't Buy

As a Yankees fan, I have been told my entire life that the main reason behind the Yankees’ recent dominance is their league-leading payroll. If you are one of these people still making this argument, I’m going to be rather blunt and tell you that you are a dumbass. The four World Series rings that the Yankees won from 1996-2001 had very little to do with the team’s salary. The unity of those teams was unbelievable, and they were built on a core of homegrown players like Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, and Bernie Williams. But after they lost to the Diamondbacks in the 2001 World Series, the front office panicked and started giving out monster deals to big-name free agents and trading away our young players for washed-up All Stars. Sure, some of these deals have panned out for the Yankees. I don’t regret the money that was given to guys like Hideki Matsui or CC Sabathia. But so many of these stars, like Gary Sheffield, Randy Johnson, and AJ Burnett, just didn’t fit in in New York. Yes, the Yankees won the World Series in 2009. But for the amount of money that they spent in the past decade, one ring is not a success by any means. And now as the Yankees are down 3-0 in the ALCS, it appears as if our spending has once again bitten us in the ass.

Today’s game is much different than it was a few years ago. There is a greater emphasis on defense, base running, and small-ball hitting. Home run hitters don’t have nearly as much value as they used to. There is a lot more strategy involved, and I think it’s good for baseball. Small-market teams with low salaries are winning at a higher rate. Team chemistry and smart management are more important than ever. The culture of professional baseball is changing before our eyes, but the Yankees don’t seem to notice. They continue to value the name of the player over the player’s performance. The roster is full of guys who swing for the fences in an attempt to be the hero but just end up striking out. The defense is average at best. It’s really just painful to watch.

Clearly the guy who has been taking the most heat recently is Alex Rodriguez, and it couldn’t be more deserved. A-Rod is the Adam Sandler of the MLB. Back in the day he was the best there was, and it wasn’t even very close. In the middle of his career he might not have shown the same speed or range but he was still pretty damn good. Now, he literally does nothing right and he still manages to always find a way to look worse than he did before. A-Rod does not have one hit against a right-handed pitcher this postseason. NOT ONE HIT. It’s hit the point where I’m surprised if he doesn’t strike out. And when he comes up in a clutch situation? They might as well end the game at 26 outs. Other guys on the team should be thanking A-Rod for overshadowing how badly they’ve been playing as well. Nick Swisher has been a flaming piece of crap. I love Swish as a person, but I have no faith in him as a baseball player and can’t wait until he leaves New York. Eric Chavez has looked nothing like he did in the regular season. Curtis Granderson has been awful, striking out even more than he usually does. Robinson Cano looks like he just doesn’t want to be on the field anymore. Mark Teixiera continues to look like a .250 hitter. Add this all up, and you aren’t going to win many games. The Yankees have been shut out 29 of the 31 innings in this series. I know their pitching has been good, but come on. Doug Fister isn’t Nolan Ryan. Anibal Sanchez isn’t Pedro Martinez. The hitting just sucks.

I know the Yankees’ season isn’t over quite yet, and I haven’t completely lost faith. Obviously I hope they pull it together. I’m just saying that they don’t deserve to advance any further. Us Yankee fans have high expectations year in and year out, but if you look up and down this year’s roster you’ll realize that this team just isn’t that great. The Orioles probably outplayed us in the Divisional Series. The Oakland A’s probably would have beaten us. The Yankees have better players, but they are better teams. I’m actually very proud of the Yankees this season. I think they completely overachieved and some guys deserve a ton of kudos. Joe Girardi did an unbelievable managerial job. Cano probably would have won the MVP in a normal season. Derek Jeter led the league in hits at age 38 and came up big in the playoffs before his injury. Ichiro played his ass off ever since he got to New York. Raul Ibanez was more than clutch for us. And the pitching as a unit was phenomenal all year. Whether or not the Yankees win or lose this series, I’m glad with the results. I don’t think expecting a World Series out of this team would be reasonable. Sure, we’ve got some of the pieces in place, but we aren’t nearly as complete as some other teams. Those teams have adapted to the change in the air of the MLB, and it’s time that the Yankees do too.

Baltimore Orioles

O The Pain

I have fallen in love four times. Shawn Johnson during the 2008 Summer Olympics. Mila Kunis in Friends With Benefits. The girl who sits across from me in my Journalism class who I am too afraid to talk to. And the 2012 Baltimore Orioles.

How could you not?

Their best starting pitcher all year? Wei-Yin Chen, a rookie from Taiwan.

Their closer who saved 51 games career? Jim Johnson, after never saving more than 10 games in a season

Their best hitter in the postseason? Nate McLouth. The same Nate McLouth deemed not good enough by the Pittsburgh Pirates, and signed to a minor league contract with the Orioles this season.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Their point differential during the regular season? +7. They won 93 games, that’s 24 more than they lost, by outscoring their opponents by 7 runs. That’s unheard of. That doesn’t happen. How?

The more I watched the ALDS between the Yankees and Orioles, the more I started to understand how they did it. They were assembled mostly from Major League Baseball’s disposables, the unwanted, the forgotten, and international signees that nobody has ever heard of.

After a courageous effort from “ace” Jason Hammel, Jim Johnson imploded in Game 1 and became the scapegoat for a 7-2 loss. You got that feeling, down 1-0, the Orioles would fold to the Yanks would surely shellac the rookie from Taiwan and then close out the series in the Bronx.

That rookie from Taiwan had different ideas.

Wei-Yin Chen put in an equally gutsy effort, pitching 6 and 1/3 innings allowing one earned run. Following that act, the journeyman, sidearm throwing, game saving Darren O'Day struck out Alex Rodriguez in a seven-pitch battle.

In trots Brian Matusz to tackle the lefties. Matusz was once labeled as a can’t-miss prospect, after posting ERA’s of 4.63, 4.30, and 10.69 in his first four seasons and then 4.87 this season, he was regarded as a bust. This postseason, he seemed to have found a home in the bullpen—routinely getting big outs.

Game 3 was when the love started. Series tied at 1-1, Yankee Stadium…the stage doesn’t get any bigger. Miguel Gonzalez…the rookie from Mexico, will surely succumb to the pressure.

Not so fast.

I couldn’t really believe it to be honest. Miguel Gonzalez, (Miguel Gonzalez!), was unflappable. Unyielding. He didn’t flinch, didn’t budge against a lineup that accounted for 50 all star appearances and a first ballot hall-of-famer.

If not for Raul Ibanez' late game heroics, it would go down as the best pitched game from a pitcher nobody has ever heard of ever.

After that gut wrenching loss, series over, right?

Once again…these fighting O’s man. They just wouldn’t fold. After the emotional blow these guys rallied and won Game 4 behind yet another fearless effort from Joe Saunders.

They won by one run…fitting

Unfortunately, Game 5 seemed inevitable.

As much heart and guts as this team had, as little as they cared that they were playing the most historic franchise in all of sports, they just ran out of magic.

How many herculean-pitching performances did they have left? How much magic was left in Nate McLouth’s bat? How many more times can Darren O’Day save the day? No pun intended.

They might have lost game 5 and the series, but they showed the world that the Baltimore Orioles are back to being a relevant baseball team. Buck Showalter has instituted a new culture throughout the organization. Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, and 20 year-old stud Manny Machado provide a solid young nucleus. Dylan Bundy and Kevin Gausman are two young live arms that should progress to the big leagues very quickly.

Watch out for the Baltimore Orioles.

-Chris Collins

Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisCollins127

Follow Chris and Pj @IceBathReport

Chris's Study Zone: Volume 2

Instead of reading an entire novel and writing a paper on it all of which is due tomorrow...

-You know for a second there the Browns had me. Today's game had all of the classic "that did not just happen" credentials. Cleveland is starving for a win, the Giants for whatever reason play worse at home, and also play exceptionally crappy against crappy teams. To top things off, they travel to San Francisco next week and were obviously overlooking Brandon Weeden and the Monstars. (Anybody catch that Space Jam reference?) Anyway, when Cleveland was up 14-0 I kind of just accepted the fact that this is going to be that day. That day where the Giants just make you shake your head but you can't get pissed off because they have won two Super Bowls in five years. Luckily, I was wrong.

-Didn't get to see the game, but I'm giving Andrew Luck and the Colts a nice fist bump. Playing for their coach Chuck Pagano who is in the hospital with leukemia. I said earlier in the year that I didn't think the Colts would be good but I have a feeling they will pull of one of those" Wow Andrew Luck is the real deal" upsets. (Pats myself on the back). 

-On that note...are the Packers just not that good this year?

-Remember when Bronson Arroyo had corn rows? I want to know if he is the only white person to ever pull that off. If so, bravo Bronson.

-O, he also threw 7 innings of one hit ball tonight.

-This weekend, I was "that guy" who falls down because he is wasted and tripped over thin air.

-And brought the girl I was with down me.

-I spent a solid two hours on this site. It's honestly fantastic. Haven't you always wondered, "man I've always wondered what kind of tail RA Dickey brings home". This site has all the answers!!!!

O, and he finished the season with 20 wins and a 2.73 ERA

-The lights just went off in the library...if I disappear tonight just assume that Hannibal Lecter found my freckled face, sloppy beard, and developing beer belly extremely appetizing.

-I hope he uses ketchup.

-Ok they are back on! I'm alive!!

-Man Minnesota beat the boogers out of Tennessee. They are 4-1 and atop a tough NFC North. I said this last year: I really like Christian Ponder. Very athletic, has all of the tools. I watched him step into a throw and deliver a seed with a very big and fast black guy coming at him with full speed. Ponder got leveled into next week, but he completed the pass. After that, I was like "alright, I'm doing keg stands from the Christian Ponder kool-aid."

-O, he was 25-35 today with 258 yards and 2 TD's.

-Percy Harvin is really good too.

O, he had 8 receptions for 108 yards and a pair of touchdowns himself, one of them rushing.

-Staying on this Minnesota-Tennessee game...is Chris Johnson really this bad? 15 carries for 24 yards today. Has there ever been a guy that had such a great season (2009) and then totally sucked as bad as Chris Johnson is sucking? It's gotten comical. He has only eclipsed 25 yards rushing ONCE this year. Once! And to his credit, he did rush for over 100 yards that day. But really, every week I check the box score with a shit eating grin on my face just because I can't wait to see if Chris Johnson averaged more than 1 yard per carry. And I just picture  how pissed off PJ is getting (he owns Johnson in our fantasy league).

Interesting stat: This year, Johnson has 2 carries for -9 yards inside the opponent's 10 yard line 

-49ers 45. Bills 3. Yikes

-Is it me or does Willis McGahee fumble more balls than a Tuesday night stripper? I mean Jesus. Peyton Manning is about to pull off an impossible comeback after Bill Bellicheck asininely went for it on 4th down, and then this guy gets stripped. Unbelievable. I have no tolerance for fumbling. 

-RG3 didn't know the quarter or score after he got rocked today. I'm sorry if I was the trainer asking questions I couldn't help but laugh hysterically. I would have asked: "Hey RG3, remember  when that psycho lady screamed your name when announcing that you won the Heisman Trophy?"

-I could not be happier about the Eagles losing today. Michael Vick fumbled two more times, giving him four fumbles and six picks on the year. (Insert Michael Vick joke here).

-But seriously, has there ever been a team that has played this poorly for five games and still have a winning record?

-Good thing I showered today. (Sarcasm).

-Heard that the Kansas City Chiefs have not run a single offensive play with a lead. Wow. O, they lost 9-6 today.

-I have never been more excited for a sporting event in which I already know the result. The Jets are about to get chastised tomorrow night. Let's see:

• Their quarterback is awful
• They have no running game
• Their linebackers are old and slow
• Their best player is hurt
• Their #1 receiver is Jeremy Kerley
• Jeremy Kerley

-O, and they are playing the undefeated Texans who have been the best team in the NFL so far. It's going to be a blood bath!!

Alright guys, it's after 2am. I gotta start making moves on this paper. I'll see you next time in Chris's study zone. Read my first study zone here.

-Chris Collins

You can follow Chris @ChrisCollins127

And Chris and Pj @IceBathReport