Baseball Playoffs

I have waited to comment on the playoffs until it was certain that The New York Mets and The New York Yankees are in it  Though I often say, when asked what team I root for, that I root for the elegant geometry of the game itself, I do prefer the New York teams.  When I was growing up I rooted for the Red Sox, both because my older brother was a Yankee fan and because Ted Williams was on the Red Sox (see my post about Williams July 8 of this year) but since I came to New York, exactly fifty years ago, I have rooted for the New York teams.  I prefer the Mets because I prefer the National League, where the pitcher bats and there is more strategy in trying to balance pitching, fielding and hitting.  In 1986 I was watching the final game of the Mets/Astros playoffs, along with my fellow Nation employees, when I had to leave for the opera.  I had my transistor radio with me and listened to it on the plaza at Lincoln Center, as all around me there were groups of people doing the same.  When Jesse Orosco got the final out cheers went up all over the plaza and we went into the theatre to enjoy the opera (Cendrillon, by Massenet).  So I hope the Yankees beat the Astros (now in the American League) and the Mets beat the Dodgers (as sportswriter Dick Young said, when the man who moved the Dodgers from Brooklyn died, "Walter O'Malley, I spit on your grave.").

If the Mets or the Yankees don't win I am rooting for the Royals and the Cubs.  The Cubs because they play in one of the oldest and loveliest stadiums, but also because they have not won the World Series since 1908 and last won the pennant in 1945.  As for the Royals, who came close to winning the World Series last year, I recommend Bruce Schoenfeld's article in the Oct. 4 New York Times Magazine about manager Ned Yost.  Yost is considered old-fashioned because he treats his players as individuals, not just collections of statistics, "the reach of social media and the herd mentality that pervades it may make him the most criticized manager ever."  Kansas City puts its emphasis on fielding and, especially,  middle relief, something many teams have neglected in this era of glamorous closers and starting pitchers who often can't go more that five or six innings.  Yost also allows his players to bunt and steal, both rather lost arts in today's world of power hitters and homeruns.

The Mets were something of a surprise this year.  They had good starting pitching from the beginning (Colon, deGrom, Harvey, et al.) and a successful closer in Jeurys Familia, but they only started scoring enough runs after the June acquisitions of middle reliever Tyer Clippard and hitters Yoenis Cespedes, Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe, the call-up of Michael Conforto and the return of David Wright. Of course we all know that anything can happen in one game (the Yankees vs. the Astros) or a short series (the Mets vs. the Dodgers) but I have hopes for a subway series, one that will go more than the five games of 2000.