Star Power in the West

Who said there weren’t any stars in the National League Championship Series? It seems like there’s a lot of complaining about the teams that were matched-up in the NLCS this year. No star power, they say. Why is that? Are the two 25-man rosters solely made up of journeymen and average players? Of course not.

Star power has more to do with media driven hype than actual talent on the field. Brandon Webb won the Cy Young award last year, and is one of only 2 pitchers who have a legitimate chance to win it this year. Matt Holliday led the league in batting average and RBI’s, while hitting almost 40 home runs. Troy Tulowitzki is (as Todd Helton said), “a gold glove waiting to happen.” Not to mention that he should be the favorite to win this year’s Rookie of the Year. Talent is certainly not the problem with these two teams. The Rockies’ pitching staff as a whole has the best ERA in all of baseball since the All-Star break—yet few if any national media members can name even ONE Colorado pitcher.

It’s certainly not impossible to have a star in Denver or Phoenix. Joe Sakic has produced a pretty respectable career. Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling did pretty well in 2001 in the Valley of the Sun. A few people have heard of John Elway. Its not that the markets are too small to produce household names. It’s that the media picks-and-chooses who they want to promote each year. Each of these teams is loaded with young talent. Both have had prospects for the last few years that all baseball people have put towards the top of their rankings. Maybe it’s because Peter Gammons doesn’t have season tickets to the Rockies.

Instead, the problem is that it’s not the New York Diamondbacks against the Boston Rockies. The national media is so busy shoving the Yankees and the Red Sox down the public’s throat for 6 months, then blasts the public (and sport in general) when the ratings are horrific in the playoffs. Perhaps the media should look in the mirror and cover relevant stories instead of giving us a daily update of how many games the Yankees are behind in the loss column. Here’s a newsflash: The Yankees were a fundamentally flawed team since spring training—an old team with no pitching. When New York had the best record in the American League in the second half, they were beating up on the Royals, Devil Rays, and Orioles most of the time! The NL West had 4 teams that had a legitimate shot at winning the division at any point this season. In fact, the top 2 teams made the playoffs and the 3rd place team lost in a 1 game playoff. The 4th place Dodgers were even leading the division and wild card races as late as August. Yet still, only the AL East seemed to matter.

So what happens when the Rockies, who have won 21 of their last 22 games, roll into the World Series? If it’s against the Red Sox, they’ll be overmatched and given no chance at all to win. If it’s the Indians, well…. Would baseball even bother playing that series? Neither Colorado, nor Cleveland is a big market. What would be the point going through with a World Series that no one would care about? If a team from the East Coast was putting together this streak, it would be viewed at one of the best streaks of all time. Legendary even. Each SportsCenter broadcast would be led off with Rockies highlights. Then there would be the obligatory graphic comparing them to the 1935 Cubs as putting together one of the best streaks to finish a year of all time. Buster Olney and Tim Kurkjian would sit on the Budweiser Hot Seat each night and predict how much longer the Rockies could keep this up. Even if the coverage has been something less than heroic, the streak is still legendary.

What can I say, I like the idea of the 2 teams that are playing the best baseball battling each other for the Championship. Like last year, it’s nice to see that the logo on the hat does not determine the participants in the World Series. Is it bad to already be rooting for a Brewers vs. Blue Jays series next year? We better start promoting Prince Fielder and Roy Holliday if we want to avoid this problem next October!