Sully Baseball

SUNDAY REQUEST - @southpaw1849 points out that maybe more Americans cared about the WBC than I claimed. He is right. The trick is how do you build on that?

In this installment of The Teams That Should Have Won, I go to the Oakland A's, a team that has won a bunch but also a lot of teams that would have been great champs but fell short. But only the 2002 A's would have given the team a Hollywood ending... literally.

I lost a podcast and ALL my Text Messages today. Maybe that is a lesson... maybe I need to shed things and move on.

Dallas Green died today. He may not have been cute and cuddly, but he woke up two dormant fan bases and gave them something to cheer about in the 1980's.

Some teams pick badly in the MLB Draft. But two teams whiffed on picks where they could have put a star in a pennant winning situation. Essentially they are the Darko Milicics of baseball.

MLB and their on line production can learn from how Disney and Indiana Jones handled home video .

MLB blackout rules are stupid. But MLB blacking out Blue Jays games for all of Canada? That is insane.

SUNDAY REQUEST - @bfler67 calls 1977 the Good Ole Days... which would have surprised people in 1977.

The latest installment of the Teams That Should Have Won is the 1993 San Francisco Giants. The Giants have had a lot of near misses and a lot of recent titles. But a win in 1993 would have been something really special.

As I look at what I have accomplished with the daily podcast, I wonder something: What have I been talking about?

What managers are currently worthy of making it to the Hall of Fame? Which managers will get over the hump if they win the 2017 World Series?

Thinking of players whose lives were cut short and what kind of legacy they could have left.

All things come to an end. The Podcast is not ending and the Daily part of it will continue for a little bit more. But soon doing 7 of these a week will simply become impractical. Doesn't mean it isn't the most fun I've had being creative in my life.

The fact that Tommy John is not in the Hall of Fame is absurd. Not only did he have the goods, but as a pioneer who risked his own body, he changed the game forever.

SUNDAY REQUEST - Friend of the podcast @markblakemore wonders how the WBC could possibly be blacked out.

THE TEAMS THAT SHOULD HAVE WON series continues. It is tough to feel for the Yankees and their misery needs to be graded on a curve. But I have no doubt that Yankee fans would have given anything to add 2001 to their World Series collection.

On campus in Berkeley, I realized that the new cutting edge technology we use to enjoy entertainment is nothing new to young adults. And baseball can survive if they put their old wine in new bottles.

The Tigers might want to rebuild, but they are stuck with the brilliant Miguel Cabrera whether they like it or not.

All things being equal, I would be a Pirates fan. Now that team is at a crossroads.

Rays pitcher Chris Archer has some admirable sentiments about the WBC. But I think that a real unifying lesson can be found with how baseball is already set up.