The unique perspective and provocative opinions of Joe O’Neill
Sports Shorts
High
fives,fist bumps,congrats and kudos to Plant High alum Pete
Alonso, who finished his incredible, rookie Major League Baseball season
with the New York Mets by leading MLB with 53 home runs. Alonso also set
a Mets franchise record as well as the MLB standard for homers by a rookie.
However
this ends, the Rays—with all their familiar issues, from attendance and
Montreal scenarios to payroll and personnel attrition—deserve big-time credit
for making it to the post season with so many cards stacked against
them. And imagine if Tyler Glasnow didn’t get hurt, and they had gotten what
they expected from Blake Snell and Jose Alvarado?
After
five years, Joe Maddon is out in Chicago. Savior to scapegoat. The Cubs
didn’t renew the contract of the manager who had five winning seasons, four
post-season appearances and one memorable World Series win that ended a
108-year drought. It was the most successful stretch in franchise history. In
effect, Maddon was a victim of his own, history-making, early success. When you
win a World Series in your second year and miss the playoffs in your fifth, it
comes down to a familiar, however unfair, bottom-line: What have you done
for us lately? Frankly, all Theo Epstein, the Cubs president of baseball
operations, had to do was look in the mirror at the guy who overspent on
underperforming free agents.