An Uphill Battle Until September Ends

BY MELISSA ZIELINSKI

As August comes to a close and you feel a chill in the breeze it only means one thing, fall is just around the corner. For me, this time of year means my fantasy baseball trade deadline is nearing, my first full season of fantasy baseball is ending and my first fantasy baseball postseason will begin (fingers crossed).

Let me put my fantasy sports thoughts aside though to talk about the real reality of baseball at the moment.

The Oakland Athletics have found themselves embedded once again in postseason talks with actual live mentions from an ESPN reporter here-and-there.

For those of you who know me or have read my blog, you know I’m a diehard believer in the green and gold from Oakland. In the past few seasons the A’s have been at the bottom (or near the bottom) of the basement in their division (I’m talking the last six years), but this year it seems this team, the Athletics, have given me some hope.

I grimace in pain when I think about that hope.

From season start to now the Athletics have steadily improved. Before the All-Star break, Oakland went 37-27, since the All-Star break they’re 22-13. For any A’s fan this is a key characteristic of the A’s – being better post All-Star break, but I can’t say it’s been that way since the last time that Oakland has made a playoff appearance (in 2006 they were swept by the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series).

Until now…

Currently the Athletics are sitting pretty in second place in the American League West and are six games back of the front-running Texas Rangers. While there’s still a chance to knock Texas from their first-place pedestal, the Wild Card is the best bet for Oakland right now.

It’s an option that is being dangled right in front of their faces too like a piece of yarn above a cat.

Of the two Wild Card spots granted in the AL, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Baltimore Orioles hold them, respectively. The A’s are only a half a game back from securing those non-secure spots however, while Detroit is right on the A’s heels at one-and-a-half games back.  The Los Angeles Angels (four games back), Boston Red Sox (seven games back) and Seattle Mariners (seven and a half games back) are also forces to be reckoned with if they can rise to the occasion in the last month or so of the regular season.

So why am I grimacing you ask? I’ll tell you why.

Of Oakland’s remaining opponents: two are first place teams in the AL, six are in the AL Wild Card hunt and two carry histories of beating the Athletics over and over, no matter how good or how poor they perform in that given year.

The Athletics are slated to face the Rays, Red Sox, Angels (twice), Mariners (twice), Orioles and Tigers.  Those are all teams surrounding the A’s in the race those two offered Wild Card spots.

In their remaining series, 21 of 50 of the league’s best batters will face Oakland’s pitching staff, while 13 of 50 of the league’s best pitchers could possibly take the mound against the A’s.

None of the league’s best batters (out of the top 50) come from Oakland and only two pitchers of the 50 best pitchers in the league are from the A’s.

At this point I cannot begin to predict if the A’s will be able to clinch a birth for the first time since 2006, but I’ll watch nervously to see what manager Bob Melvin and his club can pull from their sleeves.

Instead for now, I’ll stick to managing my so cleverly named “Elephant in the Room.” Yes – my fantasy team.

A Trip Down Memory Lane: Fight Night

BY MELISSA ZIELINSKI

While interning for the Washington Capitals the month or so after free agency opened up and after development camp came to a close it was hard to find a story of relevance. Who’s really thinking about hockey when it’s over 100 degree in the District? That’s when I came up with the brilliant idea to right a weekly feature with the title “This Week in Caps History.”

My days at the Caps have ended, but I still have hockey on the mind. Since a chance of a lockout is ever increasing I decided to stay positive and do my own take on the Caps’ feature I created, but with my own twist, I’ll call it “A Trip Down Memory Lane.”

For my first trip down “memory lane,” I’ll set the Scene:

It’s late March in Rochester, New York and the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League (AHL) have a game. To paint a vivid picture it’s bitter and freezing. My nine year-old self is bundled up and hand-in-hand with my dad as I walk across the bridge that overlooks the Genessee River, creating blustery cold air that hits my face.

Now that you are shivering as you read, here’s the important part – the game.

Tonight the Americans are hosting the Hamilton Bulldogs, which always guarantees a game to watch. As it’s hard to bring up archives from the seasons in the late ‘90’s a lot of today’s blog is by memory, but don’t worry, no matter the age I always have a keen memory of my Amerks.

It seemed from the moment that the Bulldogs and Amerks took the opening faceoff, gloves were on the ice.

And the fighting went on and on.

To be honest, I don’t remember who even won the game and I don’t think either team cared either.

On the ride home, all I could remember about the broadcast was that Rochester’s radio play-by-play  broadcaster, Don Stevens, kept repeating himself. “Man oh Man,” he’d say, when he’d play back the tap of the game that was now in the books.

The “Penalty box” show host, Craig Schailler, echoed those words too.

Now for a little history.

When I decided to revisit this game from March 22^nd of Rochester’s 1997-98 season I looked at some names and found one in particular that struck me…Dennis Bonvie.

Bonvie is what you call a career AHL-er. He saw just less than 95 games of National Hockey League action and 871 games in the AHL in what was more than a 15-year career.  With that though came more than 4,804 penalty minutes (PIM) from both the AHL and NHL.

During the 1997-98 season, Bonvie set the record for PIMs and this game helped him reach that milestone.

That night Bonvie decided to duel with Rochester’s Peter Vandermeer. The two went gloves off for a minute before any referee even broke it up (ah, the good old days where players could really go at it).

Before the night’s end there was a handful of other fights and roughing penalties dealt to Hamilton and Rochester and combined both teams walked away with 359 PIMs.

Now I don’t know if you’d necessarily call that game a hockey game, but it is one that I’ll never forget. My first real fight night.

MLB Game Notes: A Few Things Worth Mentioning

BY MELISSA ZIELINSKI

A couple weeks ago I predicted that the Red Sox would take the AL East division and the whole American League, but a lot has changed since then…

Tampa Bay who was a handful of games out when I wrote my last blog has come back to be just three behind the Sox and the Yanks are sitting pretty in first place (four and a half games ahead). Also New York seemingly doesn’t have much to worry about this week matching up against the nothing-to-lose Jays, while the Sox have an all important duel between a team they must beat in Tampa.

According to ESPN, Boston’s “panic meter” is only 3-4, but this may change if their pitching doesn’t improve and with the injured Youkilis on the bench.

There are some other battles that are worth taking a look at too…

Texas Rangers vs. LA Angels vs. Boston Red Sox vs. Tampa Bay Rays

Even though I said I was moving on I had to throw the Sox and Rays into the mix on this next discussion because the Angels, who are three and a half games behind the Rangers for first are also only one game behind the Rays and four games behind the Sox for the Wild Card spot. 

LA has a good chance to make up some ground in this next series as they throw out the first pitch tonight in a weekend series against the Orioles (and since I’m working for the Washington Capitals I should mention Alex Ovechkin is throwing out the first pitch tonight). The Angels are 5-1 this season against the O’s and are on a two-game winning streak, while also winning seven of their last ten.

Still, the Rangers will be facing a three-game set against the Mariners and have went 6-1 against Seattle this season. Their starter CJ Wilson has also won six of his last seven on the mound.

The Angels should be able to sweep the series and help give them self a chance at the wildcard (given that Texas stays hot and sweeps their series against Seattle). Offensively the team has connected and it should make for an exciting AL West race in the final days of the regular season.

Over in the NL, it’s pretty clear that the Phillies will walk away with the best record in the league, leaving Atlanta, St. Louis and San Fran to duke it out for the wild card spot. The best contender out of these three looks to be Atlanta who’s heading into a weekend series against the New York Mets. After this weekend they will have some time to make up ground as they face the Marlins once more (where they took two of three during the week) and Washington before seeing Philadelphia again for the last three games of the regular season.

Atlanta should be able to inch into the postseason, but I have one concern. The Nats want to head into their offseason with some momentum. After getting Strasburg back on the mound, completing a four-game sweep of the Mets (which hasn’t been done since relocating from Montreal) and being on a five-game win streak this young team has something to prove and could give the Braves a hard time.

Both the Cardinals and Giants are at least seven games behind the first-place contender in their division, which will make them extra hungry for a “W.”

Still, with Matt Holliday possibly missing some time with finger inflammation and the inconsistency seen in the Giants, neither will have enough to muster up against Atlanta. In my opinion, the Braves have the hardest schedule nearing the end of September, but should be the WC victor.

It may have seemed like things weren’t going to be interesting, with the Sox on top as usual and the Yankees right behind them, but the dark horse has stopped that from being the case. Of course now the certain isn’t so certain and as always when it comes down to it no baseball, but September baseball matters now.