Just when we thought the baseball season was really hitting its stride – there are intriguing games nearly every day and the Rockies are still in contention! – the real fun begins. This weekend marks the beginning of interleague play for the 2006 season. With it, all kinds of baggage once again will surface.
As the last remaining professional sport in which divisions actually matter and the two leagues retain clearly different identities, interleague play produces some long-held and impassioned debates.
The pairing of teams from the American and National leagues was the greatest thing to happen to defenders of the designated hitter. Traditionalists now spend so much time lamenting the sanctity of the game when the Mariners play the Padres that unnaturally subbing some monster long-ball banger in to hit for the pitcher at every at-bat no longer seems nearly the affront it used to be.
But the real hope is that the pairing of an NL team with one from the AL will help decide which league is superior. Is pitching (NL) more important than hitting (AL)? Small ball (NL) or long ball (AL)?
The debates are supposed to be settled on rivalry weekend. But the games aren’t exactly rivalries because the teams rarely play each other, and the games mean less because they don’t really cause much divisional harm.
Nonetheless, there’s the Subway Series (Yankees-Mets), the Freeway Series (Dodgers-Angels), the Red Line Rivalry, aka the Crosstown Classic (Cubs-White Sox), the I-70 Series, aka the Show Me Series (Cardinals-Royals), the Earthquake Series, aka the BART Series (Giants-Athletics) and the Lone Star Shootout (Rangers-Astros). Add to that lineup the Beltway Series, aka the Angelos Angst (Orioles-Nationals), the Citrus Series, aka the Something’s Fishy Fest (Marlins-Devil Rays), and the, well, what do you call the Rockies-Blue Jays matchup? The Two Birds with One Stone Series? Come up with a better name beginning today, when Toronto visits Coors Field for a three-game set against the Rox. Former Arvada West High School standout Roy Halladay isn’t scheduled to pitch this weekend, but Josh Towers (1-7, 8.45 ERA) takes on Aaron Cook (4-3, 3.27) tonight at 7 p.m. The game airs on FSN.
WEAK IN REVIEW
University of Colorado men’s tennis, established in 1914, officially was eliminated as a varsity sport Wednesday after athletic director Mike Bohn determined the school could no longer support the team because of the school’s serious budget woes. CU’s Eric Molnar, who will compete in singles at the NCAA Tournament at Stanford University beginning Wednesday, will return to Boulder without a team. CU now carries the minimum number of sports needed to keep its Division I-A status.
WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEE …
Someone finish Sunday’s Colorado Colfax Marathon – a 26.2-mile course beginning at Aurora’s Sports Park and ending in Lakewood at Colorado Mills Mall – in less time than it would take to drive the route. Without gridlock and stop lights, this is a real possibility.
THE COUCH
ON: The Kentucky Derby and Preakness could hardly be more different. While the big field at Churchill Downs (there were 20 starters this year) runs 1 1/4 miles, with pomp and circumstance at every turn, the Preakness goes just nine entries deep at 1-1/16 miles, against a more subdued backdrop. But it’s at Pimlico where the Triple Crown is born. Surviving the Derby is difficult, but positioning to be a threat for the Big 3 reveals itself at the Baltimore-area track. Barbaro, who won in Kentucky by the largest margin in 60 years and is at even-odds for Belmont, could become the fourth horse this decade to win the first two legs of the Triple Crown, joining War Emblem (2002), Funny Cide (2003) and Smarty Jones (2004). But there is real talk that Barbaro has a better shot than those three for the triple. For Saturday’s Preakness, airing at 1 p.m. on KUSA-9, remember this: Only one horse that didn’t run in the Derby has won the Preakness in the past 22 years. And just three horses from Louisville will run at Pimlico: Brother Derek, Sweetnorthernsaint and Barbaro.
OFF: Colorado’s premier annual festival takes place Saturday with a road race you don’t need brains to run. Fruita’s Mike the Headless Chicken Festival, with its accompanying 5K race, celebrates the chicken who, in 1945, had his head lopped off but somehow survived for 18 months with an intact brain stem. It was a fabulous feat of freakdom, and the fest encourages racers to “run like a headless chicken” because if ever there was an inspiration in this crazy, mixed-up world, it’s the fowl who kept on pecking without a head. Check www.miketheheadlesschicken.org for more information.
AROUND TOWN
The Colorado Mammoth, National Lacrosse League champion, hasn’t planned its victory parade and already professional lacrosse is at it again. The Denver Outlaws, an expansion entry in the outdoor Major League Lacrosse, kick off their existence Saturday at Invesco Field at Mile High with a 7:30 game against fellow newcomers the Chicago Machine. Brian Langtry, fresh off a stellar performance against the Buffalo Bandits in the NLL title game, leads a crew of former collegiate standouts in a game that’s not quite traditional lacrosse. There are two-point goals (for shots from 15 yards or more) and a shot clock (what, was regular lacrosse too slow?). And don’t think the team is some circus sideshow: Broncos-Crush owner Pat Bowlen has the Outlaws under his reign. FSN will replay the Outlaw opener at 1 p.m. Sunday.
