This baseball season
tops ‘greatest’ ’98
THIS and that to chew on over lunch:
Five days to go in the baseball season. It's been a great one.
Forget last year's so-called greatest season ever, with Mac and Sammy making chopped ham out of the home run record and the Yankees winning 178 games or whatever.
This year's hot yet improbable NL Central race between the Astros and the Reds and the Mets' colossal choke in the penultimate week have been tough to top.
Throw in the Swingin' A's wonderful season and Pedro Martinez dazzling everyone in the American League and this season, to me, far outweighs last year. Last year was a nice season, but only great if you hadn't been much of a baseball fan your whole life.
Home runs -- and teams that win all their games -- are easy to recognize. No big deal.
So, it's time to pick the big awards in each league.
NL MVP: It comes down to three guys, really. Chipper Jones of the Braves, Matt Williams of the Diamondbacks and Jeff Bagwell of the Astros. I like Jones, who is virtually the only offensive threat in the Atlanta lineup. He loses Andres Galarraga in the lineup and still carries the Braves to the NL East title. His big home runs buried the Metropolitans last week. In a word: Valuable.
AL MVP: Derek Jeter, Yankees. Great fielder, great hitter, looks great in a suit, doesn't spit at umpires. Therefore, he edges Robby Alomar of the Indians.
NL Cy Young Award: Mike Hampton, Astros, barely, over Randy Johnson of the Diamondbacks. Hampton's 20 wins (going into today's game against the Reds) takes it over Johnson's 350+ strikeouts. Hampton doesn't blow guys away, he just gets them out. My kind of pitcher.
AL Cy Young: Pedro Martinez, Red Sox. Twenty-two wins and the Sox are in the playoffs. Maybe now we won't have to hear any more whining about how they let Roger Clemens get away.
NL Manager of the Year: Bobby Valentine, Mets. JUST KIDDING. Is there really any other choice than Jack McKeon of the Reds? Who are half his players, anyway? Oh yeah, they're the ones in first place in the Central Division (or at least they were when I wrote this).
AL Manager of the Year: Art Howe, A's. When I saw this team play in April in Baltimore it was awful, painful to watch even. But by September, they were full-on playoff contenders. Simply amazing.
NL Rookie of the Year: Benny Agbayani, Mets. There has to be a local angle to this column somewhere, right?
AL Rookie of the Year: Jacque Jones, Twins. Hey, it's my team. But seriously, he's put up solid numbers playing on a lousy team, and he's just a couple years removed from playing for the USC Trojans at Rainbow Stadium. Local angles are important, they tell me.
All the fuss over the reaction of the U.S. Ryder Cup team when Justin Leonard knocked home his big putt is a bit much, don't you think?
So they made a little noise.
So what?
Big-time golf would be more fun if it acted up a little.
They always hit you with the old etiquette and decorum story. The fact is, most golfers I've met are the biggest hustlers, gamblers, drinkers and smokers around.
What I don't understand about Tiger and Duval and some of the others acting like kids at a birthday party is this:
I thought they told us last month that this Ryder Cup thing was just an exhibition.
What's the big deal?
