Name the top 8 teams in Major League baseball
Following are opinions from Mille Lacs County Times editor-sports editor Gary Larson, reporter Luther Dorr and former Times intern Logan Marxhausen who’s now on the sports staff at the St. Cloud State University Chronicle. Note: This feature is written on Monday each week.
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•Question: The Major League Baseball season is past the halfway mark. Rank, in order, baseball’s eight best teams. Give us a guess as to what two will be playing in the World Series.
-Dorr: How about the Yankees and the Braves for the World Series, or maybe the Rays and the Cardinals – yes, the Cardinals. Top 8 teams right now are the Yankees, Rays, Braves, Rangers, Padres, Red Sox, Rockies and then the White Sox, Tigers, Dodgers, Reds or Twins in eighth place. Noticeable by their absence, at this time, are the Phillies and the Mets. A key injury for any of those teams could change things dramatically. That’s very true for the Twins who, despite their great play in the White Sox series, are not the same team without Justin Morneau. Of course, where would the Twins be without Carl Pavano or Delmon Young, two players that the public and media questioned being on the roster? In other words, everything can change a lot in the last 70 games.
-Marxhausen: In reverse order, here are the top eight: 8-Cinncinati, 7-Boston, 6-Atlanta, 5-Texas, 4-St. Louis, 3-San Diego, 2-Tampa Bay Rays, 1- New York Yankees. The Yankees are clearly the favorite to come out of the American League and are my pick to pull out in front of Tampa Bay. I see the hot St. Louis Cardinals coming back to the World Series.
-Larson: One thing that’s unique about baseball and its 162-game schedule is how things can change in a manner of a few games. Teams that are playing lousy can become contenders over a couple of weeks, like the Chicago White Sox recently did. The Twins looked great winning the final three games against Chicago last weekend, then turned into bums Monday night against Cleveland. Fortunes change so quickly – except for the Yankees, of course.
The top eight are, in order, the Yankees, Tampa Bay, Texas, Atlanta, San Diego, St. Louis, Boston and Detroit. How about a New York Yankees-San Diego Padres World Series? I don’t recall a season in which so many key players have been sidelined with injuries and, as Luther points out, that could play a big part in which teams advance to the playoffs.
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•Question: “Circle Me Bert” has become a popular feature during Minnesota Twins TV broadcasts, with many fans bringing signs to the ball park at both home and away games. Why is it so popular? Would you take a sign to the park, hoping Bert would circle you (or maybe, you already have)?
-Dorr: I have no idea why it is so popular and, no, I would not take a sign to the park, hoping that Bert would pick me. Now when you get circled and get 100 scratch-off tickets, that’s a different thing. Would a gimmick like Blyleven has going work in another market, like New York or Los Angeles? Is this just a Midwestern thing for rubes, something that works only in Flyover Land? Or would the people of those cosmopolitan cities fall for it also? I guess we’ll never know. Meanwhile, people seem to like to see their face on the big screen and since they’re willing to spend the time to make those signs, the Circle Me Bert thing will have a life of its own for many years.
-Marxhausen: In the games that I do go to I always think about making a sign and taking it to the game. For the past couple years I always have gone to the Twins game on my birthday and when I tell people I am going on my birthday, the Circle Me Bert question comes up. It really has reached out to some people and these fans go through hard work to sometimes make some of the most elaborate, decorative signs so that they can be seen on television. Myself, I go to the games for the love of the game. I am constantly occupied throughout the game watching play-by-play, throw-by-throw, or discussing the game with my friends or family or other games that have scores displayed on the big screen. For some, it gives them something to work for during innings and they get to be on television. I am sure that making and displaying the signs has made the game that much more enjoyable for families.
-Larson: Blyleven is like your kindly grandmother. Minnesota fans want her, err him, to approve of their artwork. The best ones get circled and the rest will keep trying. Why do so many vie for that 30 seconds of fame? One thing I’ve noted over the past 15 years or so is that normally shy people will eagerly mug for a TV camera. Like the many who wave and make faces in the background when someone is being interviewed.
The signs are distracting, especially if the people in front of you unravel theirs and start waving it around. I’m not much of an artist and I don’t like carrying bulky things to the ball park. If I did make a sign, though, rather than Circle Me Bert it would say Circle This Bert and they’d probably ask that I exit the park.
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•Question: New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner died last week. Was he good or bad for baseball?
-Dorr: I’d be lying if I said I didn’t disagree with Steinbrenner a lot, especially in his early years with the Yankees. But, if you subscribe to the theory that baseball needs an outstanding team in New York City to be successful, then you’d say that Steinbrenner did some good for baseball. To say that Steinbrenner was rough around the edges would be sugarcoating things. He often swept aside people that he considered to be in his way. But he turned an $8.4 million investment in to a franchise worth $1 billion and he gets credit for that. As far as hiring and firing of managers, players and broadcasters goes, that was no big deal for me. He was the owner and the owner gets to do what he wants, even if it appears to some to be unreasonable at times. He did some good for baseball and at times he was bad for baseball. Some people liked him, some didn’t. And that’s the way he will be remembered.
-Marxhausen: George Steinbrenner was a gift to every Yankee fan. He did absolutely everything in his power to bring together the best talent in baseball year in and year out. The Yankees payroll this season adds up to $206,738,389 while the lowest team (Pittsburgh) pays out $34,933,000. That is nearly six times the salary of that of the Pirates. The Yankees are responsible for the first ever television network to be in direct control by the team. The Yankees and Entertainment Sports (YES) channel have been up and operating since 2002. The man has won championships and filed through some of the best players to ever play the game since he bought the team from CBS in 1973. He meant a lot to the state of New York and was a giant figure in the game of baseball.
-Larson: Baseball fans pretty much despised Steinbrenner for the way he gobbled up many of the game’s best players. But, those same fans, including the ones in Minnesota, would’ve loved it if he had bought their team. Steinbrenner often acted impulsively but, as Luther says, he was the one paying the bills. How do you go from being an assistant football coach at Northwestern to owner of the Yankees? Steinbrenner must have had a tremendous drive to succeed. The tape of him firing Billy Martin as manager is a classic. Overall, he was great for baseball.
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