Monday, June 12, 2006
The Battle of the Worst
Ladies and gentleman, I hope you feasted your eyes on one of the best series baseball has to offer this weekend.
No, it wasn’t the Yankees losing three straight to Nick Swisher, Houston Street and the rest of the Oakland Athletics (although I did enjoy that). And no, it wasn’t Toronto versus Detroit, or Atlanta at Houston, or even the Texas Rangers fighting the rain and the Red Sox in Boston.
It was what I have deemed “The Battle of the Worst”. Because when you look back on this year and have the obligatory, “Okay, okay. Who was the worst team in the league this year?” conversation, all you’ll have to do is look back on this series.
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays at the Kansas City Royals.
In an over-under situation, I lost the series combined three-day attendance (57,229) against Sunday’s game in Yankee Stadium (54,570) when I chose the under.
Their combined 42 wins (Tampa Bay’s 26, Kansas City’s 16) are only two more than Detroit’s 40, and with Kansas City being the worst home team in the American League with a 9-17 record and Tampa Bay being one of the worst road teams at 10-21, it was likely Commissioner Bud Selig would pull another 2002 All-Star Game and call all three games in a tie.
But to no avail, Bud Selig let the games go on, and against the odds somebody actually won in all of the three games played, with some mild entertainment going on in between.
And in the end it was definitive which team came away victorious in the “The Battle of the Worst”.
Now you can say all you want about either team and the effect their divisions play on records; Tampa Bay plays 19 games against powerhouses Boston and New York, Toronto and a deceivingly good team in Baltimore; while Kansas City plays 19 against a re-tigered Detroit (I made that word up), an even stronger World Champion White Sox team and one of the best young teams in all of baseball, Cleveland (although they haven’t played that way lately).
Still, much has to be said about their ability to win games.
Take for instance, Tampa Bay. On the road they were 10-21 before this series. They got Rocco Baldelli finally back after a whole season and over fifty games this season. The impact he’ll have on their lineup will be tremendous.
Then take Kansas City. Struggling to find any power in the lineup, Kansas City’s explosion of 16 runs on 18 hits against Texas looked like a sign of good things to come, especially with the outburst of David Dejesus and Mark Teahen getting big hits for them in the game. Up until the game with Texas both were unproductive, with Dejesus batting .263 with just one home run and three runs batted in, and Teahen batting .204 with three home runs and thirteen rbi’s.
It looked as if things were turning around for both teams heading into this weekend.
Only one’s turnaround was short-lived, and reality set back in.
Kansas was out-hit, batting just .267 against Tampa Bay’s .369. They were outscored 19-11 and they mustered just one home run over the weekend.
The only glimmer of hope this weekend seemed to be when they managed to turn an unconventional triple play in the second inning of the Sunday game, which they still won 8-2.
Huff, unimpressed with the triple play after being called out for leaving early on a tag-up from third, said, “I didn't realize that was a triple play. That's how unimpressive that was. It's a joke.”
However legitimate, the play was ruled a triple-play and proved to have no impact on the final outcome of the game.
Scott Elarton, who started for Kansas City, wouldn’t hear none of that negative stuff Huff was saying, “The triple play was the highlight my day. That's pretty sad. That's about the only good thing that happened today.”
Considering Elarton gave up four runs on eight hits, including three home runs, it’d be safe to say it was the only highlight for Kansas City, the leagues official worst team.
At least for now.
Ladies and gentleman, I hope you feasted your eyes on one of the best series baseball has to offer this weekend.
No, it wasn’t the Yankees losing three straight to Nick Swisher, Houston Street and the rest of the Oakland Athletics (although I did enjoy that). And no, it wasn’t Toronto versus Detroit, or Atlanta at Houston, or even the Texas Rangers fighting the rain and the Red Sox in Boston.
It was what I have deemed “The Battle of the Worst”. Because when you look back on this year and have the obligatory, “Okay, okay. Who was the worst team in the league this year?” conversation, all you’ll have to do is look back on this series.
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays at the Kansas City Royals.
In an over-under situation, I lost the series combined three-day attendance (57,229) against Sunday’s game in Yankee Stadium (54,570) when I chose the under.
Their combined 42 wins (Tampa Bay’s 26, Kansas City’s 16) are only two more than Detroit’s 40, and with Kansas City being the worst home team in the American League with a 9-17 record and Tampa Bay being one of the worst road teams at 10-21, it was likely Commissioner Bud Selig would pull another 2002 All-Star Game and call all three games in a tie.
But to no avail, Bud Selig let the games go on, and against the odds somebody actually won in all of the three games played, with some mild entertainment going on in between.
And in the end it was definitive which team came away victorious in the “The Battle of the Worst”.
Now you can say all you want about either team and the effect their divisions play on records; Tampa Bay plays 19 games against powerhouses Boston and New York, Toronto and a deceivingly good team in Baltimore; while Kansas City plays 19 against a re-tigered Detroit (I made that word up), an even stronger World Champion White Sox team and one of the best young teams in all of baseball, Cleveland (although they haven’t played that way lately).
Still, much has to be said about their ability to win games.
Take for instance, Tampa Bay. On the road they were 10-21 before this series. They got Rocco Baldelli finally back after a whole season and over fifty games this season. The impact he’ll have on their lineup will be tremendous.
Then take Kansas City. Struggling to find any power in the lineup, Kansas City’s explosion of 16 runs on 18 hits against Texas looked like a sign of good things to come, especially with the outburst of David Dejesus and Mark Teahen getting big hits for them in the game. Up until the game with Texas both were unproductive, with Dejesus batting .263 with just one home run and three runs batted in, and Teahen batting .204 with three home runs and thirteen rbi’s.
It looked as if things were turning around for both teams heading into this weekend.
Only one’s turnaround was short-lived, and reality set back in.
Kansas was out-hit, batting just .267 against Tampa Bay’s .369. They were outscored 19-11 and they mustered just one home run over the weekend.
The only glimmer of hope this weekend seemed to be when they managed to turn an unconventional triple play in the second inning of the Sunday game, which they still won 8-2.
Huff, unimpressed with the triple play after being called out for leaving early on a tag-up from third, said, “I didn't realize that was a triple play. That's how unimpressive that was. It's a joke.”
However legitimate, the play was ruled a triple-play and proved to have no impact on the final outcome of the game.
Scott Elarton, who started for Kansas City, wouldn’t hear none of that negative stuff Huff was saying, “The triple play was the highlight my day. That's pretty sad. That's about the only good thing that happened today.”
Considering Elarton gave up four runs on eight hits, including three home runs, it’d be safe to say it was the only highlight for Kansas City, the leagues official worst team.
At least for now.
# posted by Justin Townsend @ 11:21 AM 
