The eighth of my random thoughts for tonight, again with possible quotes from the Joe Morgan and Jerry Crasnick chats from today (see this entry for links to the chats):
The AL Central Race:
From the Crasnick chat:
brian (new york city): why is everyone talking about how the chi sox are choking. how bout the reason the 13.5 lead in the central has diminished is because the Tribe is playing unreal ball? So it isn’t really a collapse right? Shouldn’t the tribe get more positive press than the chi sox getting bad press?
Jerry Crasnick: Brian,
Good point, but you know it’s human nature. There’s a morbid fascination with watching teams unravel. It’s why people crane their necks to see what’s going on when they pass an accident on the highway.
Brian in NYC has a point, but it is only half-right. Yes, the Indians have been playing out of their minds lately, having only lost twice in the last three weeks or so. But let’s face it, there is absolutely no way a team can single-handedly make up a deficit of 15 games in a matter of 40 days. The only way for this to happen is for the two teams to cooperate, and that is what has happened. The Indians have played great, and the White Sox have gone from the best team in baseball to mediocre. Have the Indians been more good than the Sox have been bad? Absolutely. Unlike Brian, though, I think the media coverage has accurately portrayed that. I have seen quite a few more articles about the Indians’ amazing run than about the collapse of the White Sox. They are both very newsworthy, as both as quite out of the ordinary, but the Indians have been more newsworthy and, in my opinion, treated as such.
The two teams meet for the last three games of the season, and I can’t wait to see what happens. Check out the last paragraph of my AL MVP entry for some thoughts on Travis Hafner.