Saturday, October 23, 2010

All My Ex's Celebrate in Texas...


Well that didn't exactly go as planned.

Like I said in my prediction of the ALDS between The Tampa Bay Ray and The Texas Rangers that both teams were VERY strong and it would not be a surprise if either team wound up in the World Series. Well, I gave the Rays a slight edge in that series and gave the Yankees the benefit of the doubt in their ALCS with Texas, sayingh they needed to finish them off in Six or less, because the Rangers would win a Seven game series. Seems they didn't even need the full seven. I won't make that mistake again.

Overall, this was a very one sided series. The Yankees were out hit, out pitched, out hustled and out thought. That is not to say the Yankees season was not a moderate success. I know many Yankee fans feel that without a Championship the season is a failure. I cannot subscribe to that way of thinking. Yes there are things to look back at to lament... the fact the team really didn't seem to REALLY push to win the division in the last weeks of the season... but overall the Yanks played well and looked good (barring those last few weeks in Sept). They handled a strong Twins team with relative ease in the ALDS but ran into a juggernaut in the Rangers.

Josh Hamilton won the ADCS MVP award... and his 4 home runs and 7 RBIs (and seemingly endless intential walks) clearly showed he deserved it, but do not discount the incredible pitching performance of Colby Lewis in games 2 and 6. He handcuffed a powerful Yankee lineup that really never seemed to really swing the bats well except in game 5. Even the fantastic comeback in game 1 seemed almost a product of a little luck and some Ranger bullpen mistakes then it seemed like the Yankee bats coming alive.

So, congratulations to the Rangers. If my team annot win, I ALWAYS love to see teams advance that have never been there before or haven't been there in a long time. Texas won it's first ever playoff series in franchise history just a week and a half ago... and then exorcised a long standing ghost in beating the Yankees (who had been 9-1 against the Rangers in the Playoffs before this year) on the way to their first ever World Series apperance. It was nice to see... just like to was quite endearing to see the Rangers spray Ginger Ale all over the place instead of Champane in respect to teammate Hamilton's issues with alcohol. It seems like the Rangers are a tight group who make a solid team of guys who genuinely like and pull for each other and I won;t be betting against them again this year. No matter which NL team wins the pennant.... I think the Rangers are going to make mince meat out of them.

Deep in the heart of Texas.

2 comments:

  1. Who would have guessed in June that Jeff Francoeur would be going to the world series?

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  2. Well, Certainly no one would have guessed in August. At least in June the Mets were in a playoff position.

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