NL West race is going to top ROCKY II

It is appropriate that one of the teams involved in the NL West race are called The Rockies, because I am reminded of one of the Rocky films when I look at how the division is winding down.

Each team, the Rockies, Giants and Padres, get a breather today.

That’s bad news for the Rockies (who have an extra day to mull how they blew a 6 run lead and a chance to force a 3 way tie in the loss column.)

That’s good news for the Padres (who could use a day to regroup after a lousy series in St. Louis.

And indifferent for San Francisco (who probably wouldn’t mind another calendar day in first place.)

Then back to slugging it out… which is what reminds me of Rocky II.

(Spoiler for those of you who haven’t seen a 31 year old movie.)

That was the one where Apollo and Rocky were fighting and in what looks like the 438th round, they both took a punch (like you do in a boxing match) and both fell to the ground.

So both guys fell down and both were scrambling to stand up… holding onto the ropes in the process.

The heavyweight title was going to go to whomever managed to stand up. It had nothing to do with records, training, how they fought up until that point…

Just stand up and you’ll win.

We’re at this point with the NL West. It doesn’t matter who is on the roster… how well you played… if you had slumped or gone on a tear… it doesn’t matter how well the GM made trades or who is in the farm… it doesn’t matter who has the higher payroll.

There is about a dozen games left. Great teams can have a lousy 12 some odd games. Terrible teams can have a terrific 12 some odd games.

It is all thrown out the window.

The NL West will go to whomever is left standing.

And this race will be even better because there are THREE. It would be like Clubber Lang jumping into the ring at the last minute.

Grab the ropes, Giants.

I don’t want my dad to yell like Apollo.
Go catch that chicken and win that Division!

(If you needed to have that reference explained, then you haven’t seen Rocky II!)

Is it worth 52 seconds to get a call right?

In the 11th inning of yesterday’s Dodgers/Rockies game, Rafael Furcal grounded into what looked like a double play but was called safe.

Jim Tracy came out to argue and less than a minute after the play was made, the instant replay showed that Furcal was indeed out.

It was 52 seconds.
All the people screaming “it will slow down the game” need to answer to this.

Less than a minute later we saw the call was blown.
Furcal came around to scoring the game winning run.

The Rockies are now 1 game back in the loss column for the NL West lead and every game counts.

Now granted, if the Rockies REALLY want to blame someone, blame themselves for not holding onto a 6-0 lead against a dormant Dodgers team.

That being said… we’re going to have the playoffs starting soon and more and more we are seeing that we have the technology to GET CALLS RIGHT for all time.

Once again, the need to instant replay shows itself.

I think 52 seconds is a fair amount of time to spend to make sure the right team wins the game.

IF THE PLAYOFFS STARTED TODAY… September 20, 2010

It is officially late September… and if your team is included in the little collage I made above, then you can have no beef with your GM nor your farm department.

They bought the groceries for a team that made it all the way to the last 1/3 of September in line for an October date.

It’s up to each team to survive the next 14 days.

And guess what? I have the logos for the Rockies and the Padres ready to switch out at a moment’s notice.

So here are the match ups going into today.

AMERICAN LEAGUE DIVISION SERIES

NEW YORK YANKEES (AL East Champion)
has home field advantage over
TEXAS RANGERS (AL West Champion)

MINNESOTA TWINS (AL Central Champion)
has home field advantage over
TAMPA BAY RAYS (AL Wild Card)

NATIONAL LEAGUE DIVISION SERIES

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES (NL East Champion)
has home field advantage over
CINCINNATI REDS (NL Central Champion)

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS (NL West Champion)
has home field advantage over
ATLANTA BRAVES (NL Wild Card)

Yankees and Rays are squaring off… and they could flip flop each of the next 4 days.

Stay tuned.