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October 20, 2012

Baseball moves toward World Series

By JEFF HARVEY Princeton Times

// — Now that the baseball divisional series are over, I thought that I’d look back over them. It’s hard to keep up, given the fact that I have a weekly column, but I can review them.

Tigers-Athletics: The main difference between Oakland and Detroit in this series is that the latter had Justin Verlander pitch two starts for them, and he lived up to his billing as defending  A.L. Cy Young Award and MVP winner.

Yankees-Orioles: This series will be overshadowed by the Alex Rodriquez being pinch-hit for twice, then benched for Game 5 saga, although he was hardly the only non-hitter in the Yankees’ line-up. Other than that, the Orioles were beaten at their own game, also due to an ace who performed up to billing in C.C. Sabathia.

Giants-Reds: One injury, that to Johnny Cueto in Game 1, perhaps determined this series more than anything else. Dusty Baker had to use Mat Latos in Game 1 relief and had to pitch Mike Leake in Game 4. Like the other series, there was a lot of non-hitting, but the Giants rediscovered their offense in Games 4 and 5.

Cardinals-Nationals: New manager, new middle-of-the-line-up hitter, same results to date for the Cardinals. Like the Giants, their key batters picked up the pace late in the series and the Nationals’ bullpen had a bad Game 5.

This leads to the League Championship Series for both leagues; Yankees-Tigers and Giants-Cardinals. I’m going with the Tigers and Giants to win based on better starting pitching.

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I’ve given credit to the passing game of WVU, but I should also mention running back Andrew Buie, who has taken the opportunity given him by Shawne Alston’s injury to have good games at running back. That’s also a credit to the offensive line that WVU is such an offensive machine.

•••

While this is written before the results of the Concord-Seton Hill game are available, I thought it would be good to review the season to date in terms of how the team has played. Concord split its first two non-conference games to North Carolina schools behind the passing offense led by Zach Grossi and a defense led by Jake Lilly and Davon Marion. The offense then had to make a major change due to career-ending injuries suffered by Grossi in a car wreck, turning to freshman quarterback Albert Rose and newly-eligible freshman running back Calvinaugh Jones and suffered a rough spot in a loss to Charleston.

Now, the team has acclimated itself to the new offense by playing even stronger defense and is back to the .500 level as Rose and Jones lead a run-based attack.

•••

Going to NASCAR for a minute, a news development more common to the NFL surfaced with the concussion suffered by Dale Earnhardt Jr., which forced him to step aside and let Regan Smith take over his car for the next two races, effectively ending his chances in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. I admire Earnhardt for taking this stance.

Let me know what you think by writing me c/o Jeff’s Sports Corner, P.O. Box 1199, Princeton, WV, 24740. I can also be reached at delimartman@yahoo.com or jharvey1@frontiernet.net or on Facebook.

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