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Taking Names and Keeping Score
With Major League baseball now in the day of the international player making the rosters of many of the teams, the numbers of media representatives will more than double those of years past as Major League Baseball is now a front page story in almost every corner of the world. Of course you add in all the controversy surrounding some of the more prominent players in the game today and you have the makings of a real media circus. Through it all though, the one constant is that belief that this could be the year! Even the fans can't help but get caught up in the fever, after all look at what the lowly Detroit Tigers did this past season. As a matter of fact professional baseball history is filled with rags to riches stories about cellar dwellers who rose to the game's biggest stage over the course of a year. Although there are many instances in Major League history of such happenings, one of those that is most memorable to me is the 1991 season when the Atlanta Braves and the Minnesota Twins came all the way from last place finishes the year before to playing for a world championship. For the die hard fans of both clubs it was as if their also-rans of a year before had somehow been divinely transformed into champions. Not being ones to question fate however both sets of fans got into it like it was an every year occurrence but one that might never happen again. From the hankies of Minnesota to the tomahawks of Atlanta the fans of each team lived and died with every pitch. As for the players, Atlanta Braves third baseman Terry Pendleton described it best when he put it this way. "Every pitch, every strike, every ball, every inning - everything mattered in every game." In that series five of the games were won by one run with that run coming in the home teams' last at bat. Two games were won on walk off homeruns while two more were won on daring base running and an evasive slide that allowed the winning run to score a whisper ahead of an outfielders' throw. Three times during the series runners were tagged out at the plate by catchers who withstood a major collision and bounced up as if nothing had occurred. Between the two teams 16 home runs were hit in the series with at least two coming in each of the first six games. It was a series where rookies and veterans alike played each game with the heart of a kid who never grows tired of play- ing the game. But it was also a series where each participant clung to each moment, even each pitch, like it could be his last. It was a series that fans of the two teams and for that matter fans of the game in general never grew tired of and wished could go on indefinitely. It was in fact a series for the ages. Only time will tell but, it is possible the World Series of 2007 could be one to rival that of 1991. It is also possible that two teams who currently are odds on favorites to win their respective league pennants will be the two vying for the championship when all is said and done. But then again it might be like it was in the spring of 1991 with two teams who are the least likely emerging to play in the fall classic. Either way there are fans of at least two teams whose spring hope will turn into fall joy, while those pulling for all the other teams will have to wait for another year. At this moment in time however hope still springs eternal in the hearts of fans and every person affiliated with each Major League baseball team. And in theory at least, every team still has a chance to win the pennant and play in the World Series. Who knows maybe it will be your favorite team or better yet mine.
Until next time..........be safe!
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