Consistency or Wins? That is the Question

As the NASCAR season headed to its “Chase for the Cup,” a new points system took over which, if you weren’t too dizzy from watching cars go around in circles for eight months, brought a very interesting question to mind: “What matters more in the NASCAR Chase, wins or consistency?”
If you were to talk to some of the old-time NASCAR fans, crew chiefs, or drivers, undoubtedly they would all answer “consistency.”
Which makes perfect sense. Since winning the championship is based on points, and points are based upon performance, i.e. not only how many races you won, but how you finished in ALL of the races from February through November.
So, the general thinking was that if you ran consistently well throughout the season, and collected points each week based upon how you finish in each race, you very easily could win the title by finishing strong each week. If you end up with, say, 10-15 top-10 finishes, maybe between five and ten top-fives, and throw in three or four wins, you have a recipe for nearly guaranteed success.
That has all changed now. Here, in the 2007 season, we see how drastically things have changed in NASCAR. Jeff Gordon has had, by most accounts, a model year for another strong championship run. He has had a nearly flawless ’07 campaign right from the start, where he finished 10th at Daytona, and throughout the course of the season amassed 21 top-10 finishes, 15 top fives, 10 top-threes, four second-place finishes, and four wins, while posting just one DNF (did not finish) on the year. Gordon also finished ahead of Johnson in 16 races.
As for Johnson, along with his six wins, he recorded 16 top 10s, 14 top fives, 11 top threes, one second-place finish, and he did not finish four races. Johnson finished ahead of his mentor nine times.
When the regular season ended, and NASCAR switched to the points system for the Chase, Gordon’s season suddenly didn’t look so dominant, as his 300-plus points lead evaporated like a politician’s campaign promises.
Jimmy Johnson had a solid season, to that there is no doubt. He did not have a dominant season, not a season that other drivers looked at in awe, but it was very good, especially compared to the 41 other drivers in the Nextel Cup Series, besides Gordon.
Johnson didn’t run as consistently as Gordon, he didn’t have as many top-10 finishes, or as many top fives, but he did do one thing that Gordon did not: he won six races.
Gordon won four races on the year, but it seemed like more with all of the success he had week in and week out, all season long.
One difference in the points system once the regular season ends, is that there is a points bonus for winning races. That boded well for Johnson, because although he didn’t have the type of season that he would have liked to, he did manage to squeak out six wins, which ironically, enough, was two more than Gordon (who at that time had a lead of more than 300 points).
Since NASCAR decided to put a premium on winning races regardless of how you finish in the other races, and despite how consistently well you ran all season long, Johnson was the big winner, as he entered the “Chase Season” in first place over Gordon.
This is an issue that NASCAR needs to address. They can not simply put a premium on winning races. There has to be some value to the regular season in another way, not just if you won, or how many races you won. What happened to Jeff Gordon is not right. It completely devalues all of the hard work that he, his crew chief, and his crew did all season long to make the 24 DuPont Chevrolet a serious contender to win the NASCAR Nextel Cup Championship.
Apparently, it doesn’t matter to NASCAR whether you come in third or 43rd week in and week out, only if you won or not.
That sends a bad message to the drivers, crews, and fans of the sport. There should and must be some type of reward for running well all season long. Perhaps they should consider some type of system where the regular season points leader gets extra points, pro-rated on how much of a points lead he has accumulated.
Take, for example, that Gordon finished the season with a 400-point lead. If there was a system that awarded the driver 20 percent of the points lead and added that to the points he would have started the Chase with, Gordon would have then received an additional 80 points. That seems fair, considering that nobody really posed a threat to the No. 24 team all season long. They should get a bonus for a great season, a season where they dominated the field from start to finish.
I’m not saying that what I have suggested is the answer, or the only answer, but something has to be done. And if they like, I’ll give NASCAR all the help that I can.

Once Again, American League too Tough

Another beaseball season has come and gone, and once again, the American League has prevailed.
It has happened quite often lately, and it's beginning to look as though the A.L. has a bit of a dominance over the "senior circuit."
Now, before you self-dubbed "purist" National League fans start getting all bent out of shape, screaming about the designated hitter, or the Cardinals in '06, or the Marlins and Diamondbacks clubs that have won the Series recently, look at what has been going on between the two leagues over recent years.
For one, the last time that the N.L. won the All-Star Game was all the way back in 1996, a 6-0 victory.
The American League is 10-0-1 since 1997 (the 7-7 tie in '02 being the only non-win), and has won 16 of the last 20 mid-summer classics, with the National League winning three ('94, '95, and '96), with the last one being over a decade ago. Put it this way, if your kid is less than 14 years old, he probably doesn't remember seeing the National League win an All-Star Game. That' dominance.
There was a time when the N.L. fan could say that the All-Star game doesn't mean anything, but as we all know, now it does, as the winner hosts the World Series. That means something.
Over those 20 years, the A.L. has outscored the N.L. 110-74.
In the fall classic since 1991, the A.L. has won 11 out of the last 16 series', and they have beaten the N.L. 55 series games to 33.
To look even further at National League futility against the American League, consider in the last four years, the A.L. has won the Series three times, and the N.L. has failed to win a game in any of those series'. That's dominance.
Or, just look at what happened this year. The Colorado Rockies were America's darlings, winning 21 of 22 games going into the Series, including back-to-back sweeps of the Philadelphia Phillies, who got hot in mid-September to steal first place away from the reeling Mets, and the Arizona Diamondbacks, who were the best team in the National League all season long.
The Rockies got an eight-day layoff between game four of their series with the Diamondbacks and the first game of the World Series. Some of the experts wondered if the layoff might hurt Colorado, who had been a team afire going into the series.
Maybe that did have something to do with it, but the team that had somewhere around a .280 batting average looked like a little league team against Josh Beckett and company.
Let's face it, folks. I know that, like I said earlier, you can bark about the '06 Cardinals, a vicious veteran lineup that went against the young Tigers' pitching staff (who also committed at least one error in each game against the Cards), or the '03 Marlins and the '01 D-backs who beat the Yankees, but those three teams have been the exception rather than the rule for the National League against their A.L. rivals.
Regardless of wether they use the designated hitter (hitters hitting, kind of makes sense), or the (Ho-Hum, yawn yawn) pitchers-behaving-badly-trying-to-hit National League rules, the American League is bi-annually torturing the National League, in the All-Star Game and in the World Series, and I'm loving it.

George has Flashback to Earlier Years

It seems that New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has reverted back to his wicked, old ways.

Just as many of us thought that George was losing his capacities, as his lack of appearances at Yankee Stadium, paired with the medical confirmation of his sad news would suggest, he transcended time and went to a place that he is most recognized for: the 1970's and 1980's, primarily.

In his heyday, Steinbrenner got as much press as his team did, if not more.

Steinbrenner's antics were well documented, from hiring and firing Billy Martin five times, to labeling Dave Winfield "Mr. May" after the Yankees fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1981 World Series, to firing Buck Showalter - when all Showalter did was to help mold the club that would bring home four world titles from 1996-2000.

In more recent years, it seemed as though the Boss had mellowed, with his sudden lack of voice in the media as well as his lack of appearances in the clubhouse.

Some thought that perhaps he had finally learned his lesson, and decided to let the men in the clubhouse and dugout do the motivating and criticizing.

Then, the monster reared its ugly head.

With the Yankees' back against the wall in the division series against the Cleveland Indians, Steinbrenner said in a statement to the press that if his club didn't come back and win the World Series, that Manager Joe Torre would, in all likelihood, not be invited back with the club.

Joe Torre, who, upon the announcement that he was named the Yankees manager, was dubbed "Clueless Joe" in the New York papers.

All "clueless Joe" did in his 12-year tenure as manager was win 10 A.L. East titles, six pennants, and four world championships.

The Yankees, as we all know, were bounced by the Indians, and for the seventh year in a row, New Yorks would not win baseball's ultimate prize.

This put Big Stein in a hell of a spot. Once again, Mr. Steinbrenner opens mouth and inserts foot. On one hand, if he asks Torre back, he loses credibility of being able to stand behind his words. If he doesn't ask Torre back, he risks the rath of the New York media, and most of all, the fans.

So, George has to then figure out a way where he can make everyone happy. He has to make good on his threat, but how can he appease the fans that are so heavily on Torre's side?

In the Godfather, there was a saying that Don Vito Corleone would "make someone an offer that they couldn't refuse." Steinbrenner, along with his brain trust of his children and his general manger, came up with an idea of making Torre an offer that he couldn't accept.

They came up with an idea to make Torre an offer (that alone would appease the fans who would otherwise call for their collective heads) that they knew Joe would never go for (thus, Torre does not return, as per the wishes of the Boss in the first place).

After all that Torre has done, the Yankees offer him a one-year deal with a pay cut, as if Torre has anything else to prove. Is there any doubt why Torre wouldn't take that deal?

Joe Torre has received credit for a lot of things, but not enough credit for others.

Torre ranks (and rightfully so) alongside other great Yankee managers, such as Miller Huggins and Joe McCarthy. However, there is one huge, underrated difference between the kid from Marine Park, Brooklyn and the others.

If you look at the Yankees' rosters in the days of Huggins and McCarthy, there is something that the two have in common: the rosters changed slightly, if at all.

It must have been very comforting for Huggins to know at the end of the season that all of his boys, including Ruth, Gehrig, Dickey, Lazzeri, and others were locked into contracts that would keep them in pinstripes for years to come.

McCarthy surely slept soundly during the winter months knowing that Rizzuto, Berra, DiMaggio, and later Mantle would be back without question the following seasons to defend their crowns.

Torre didn't have that luxury. From year to year, Torre was never quite sure in November what his club was going to look like the following spring.

But, through it all, Torre kept on winning. Whether it was Clemens retiring, Pettite going to Houston, Knoblaugh not being able to throw to first, Giambi's injuries and steroid scandal, an unhappy Scheffield, Stottlemyre and Zimmer leaving, free agents taking off, or any other of the ump-teen personnel changes that he had to endure, Torre kept winning. And those were many, many obstacles that neither Huggins nor McCarthy would have had to think about in their wildest dreams.

Who can blame Torre for not accepting a one-year deal and a pay cut. This man has proven many, many times that he is a winner, a manager that can overcome adversity and is more than likely going to the hall of fame as a skipper. Even if the Yankees haven't won the series since 2000.

So, the Yankees prepare to enter a new era. It's been a long time since New York had a new manager. And, it's been a long time since they didn't have Joe Torre. The Yankees, primarily King George, won't truly appreciate Torre until after he's gone. And, to quote Oliver Hardy, I say to George, "Now look at the fine mess that you've gotten us into!"