The reason the World Series took just five days to complete was because the Colorado Rockies were forced to sit idle for nine days.
Yes, the Boston Red Sox had better starting pitching, a better bullpen and a better lineup.
But the Rockies had the intangible. They were red hot. They were NLCS champs.
Nine days later, they looked like a team during the first week of Spring Training.
In fact, even counting the All-Star break, the last time the Rockies were off nine days was before a single player reported for Spring Training.
Way to go, Major League Baseball.
Meanwhile in St. Louis, the Cardinals’ front office finally named a general manager on Wednesday.
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss – kinda.
Introducing John Mozeliak. The former assistant GM to Walt Jocketty was the acting GM for the past few weeks. He has 12 years of experience with the Cardinal organization, but looks to be a “yes man” to chairman Bill DeWitt’s penny-pinching ways.
Meanwhile in Cincinnati, rumor has it that Jocketty might team up with new manager Dusty Baker.
Meanwhile in New York, Alex Rodriguez has opted out of the final three years of his contract with the New York Yankees. A classic example of addition by subtraction. (But boy, would he look good at shortstop for the Cardinals.)
The happiest person on the planet upon hearing the news A-Rod is departing the Big Apple is Texas Rangers’ owner Tom Hicks. He’s saving $21 million over three years that his team still paid the sometimey superstar.
Look for Rodriguez to end up in Los Angeles with the Dodgers or Angels, or in Chicago with the Cubs.
Meanwhile in L.A., Dodgers’ manager Grady Little is expected to get the boot in favor of Joe Torre.
Why Little was hired in the first place is beyond me, but getting fired because a big name comes along doesn’t seem fair to me. Of course, he’ll be getting $2 million next year to do nothing, which ain’t half-bad.
Meanwhile in New York, the dreaded Mitchell report on steroid and HGH use will hit newsstands sometime between now and Thanksgiving. It will be leaked to the media probably just in time to take the luster off the Cy Young, and MVP awards.
Tom Carlucci, a lawyer for MLB, reportedly told the team representatives on the conference call last month that the report is going to be “salacious.”
Said one source familiar with what was said on the conference call, “This is going to be enormous … it’s going to be a huge story when these names come out.”
Meanwhile in San Francisco, the spotlight will finally be toned down on Barry Bonds. The names that come out will include some big-time fan favorites. Barry deserves all criticism received, but this winter, the media will have dozens of targets in dozens of cities to focus upon.
Meanwhile in Philadelphia, two Phillies are cursing the extra game the Rockies needed to win the NL Wild Card.
Matt Halliday homered and drove in two runs in that game. Those numbers count as regular season statistics. That game propelled Halliday past the Phillies’ Ryan Howard in the battle for NL RBI king and it probably won the Rockies’ slugger enough votes to capture the NL MVP crown over Philly shortstop Jimmy Rollins.
Meanwhile in Jupiter, Fla., it’s 99 days until Feb. 7. Spring Training will be getting underway. Who knows if Tony La Russa’s DWI trial will be held by that time?