Kuzul

In honor of the New York Mets 50th season and the 25th anniversary of the last Mets World Championship team, I bring you the All-50th Anniversary team.Fifty years have brought many great memories and even more not so great ones for Mets fans like me. There was Ron Swoboda making "the catch" in the 1969 World Series. There was the "black cat" game against the Cubs in '69. Davey Johnson flying out, touching off the wild celebration after winning the World Series against the Orioles.There was also beating the powerful Reds in 1973 to win the National League pennant. Bud Harrelson and Pete Rose duking it out at second base.There was the day Tom Seaver was traded to the Reds in 1977.Then there was watching a championship team start to take shape in 1984. Watching the rookie phenom Dwight Gooden make NL hitters look silly.There was the huge disappointment of 1985, ...

For those of you Cubs fans who don't pay a whole lot of attention to the Cubs' farm sysyem, you may want to start. because there is some real talent there.I take you to Daytona Beach. Right now the Daytona Cubs are 37-12. Yes, that is correct, 37-12. That is an outstanding record in any league. Currently the Cubs have won 10 straight. In many of those game they have come from behind late. Tuesday they trailed 7-4 with two out in the seventh. Three home runs later they won 9-7. Tonight they were down 5-0 in the sixth. They won 9-5.In Double-A, the Tennessee Smokies are 32-17. Many of the players there now are guys from the last two Daytona teams. The '09 team won the Florida State League title. They came in a close second in '10.Remember these names. You'll be seeing them at Wrigley in the near ...

Game 6. It sort of takes a backseat to Game 7.But it shouldn't. Game 6 has often been the most memorable in many great playoff series. As Jerry Seinfeld said, "I made wisecracks in a nightclub. HE PLAYED IN GAME 6!!"With two Game 6s on tap for this weekend, I thought this would be time to revisit the five greatest Game 6s of all time.Here they are in reverse order.Begin Slideshow

The score was 3-2 in favor of the Yankees. There were two on and two out for one of the most feared hitters in the game today, Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers. The Rangers led the series two games to one, so this was a critical at-bat for the Yankees and their underachieving pitcher A.J. Burnett. Hamilton hit a pop foul down the left field line—and then it happened. As Yankee left fielder Brett Gardner closed on the ball, he was quickly running out of room. As he got to the wall and was reaching up to make the catch, a fan reached up to make the catch also and got his hands on the ball. A disgusted Gardner glared into the stands, and Hamilton was given a reprieve. Sound familiar, Cubs fans? This was Steve Bartman all over again. It was a similar play that kept an at-bat alive for the Florida Marlins ...

The Tampa Bay Rays are one of baseball's most talented teams. They have it all. They have very good defense, very good pitching, pretty good power, and above-average speed. They could very well go all the way. Except for one thing: They sometimes are not very smart.I watch the Rays three to four times a week. I cannot count how many times I have said during a game, "What was the point of that?" Sometimes it's Joe Maddon giving a key player the day off while playing the Red Sox or Yankees, with an off day or the Orioles coming up. Really Joe? You couldn't wait one more day to sit Carl Crawford? Or Carlos Pena?Sometimes it's strategy. Like having success with the squeeze bunt in certain situations, and then not using it when that same situation comes up again a week later. Or being 114 games into the season ...

The two best teams in baseball will meet this weekend in the Dome in St Pete. The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays will get it on for perhaps the upper hand going down the stretch. August is upon us. This is when baseball really gets interesting. The cream will rise to the top and the pretenders will start to fold. The winner of this series will be cream. The loser will still be cream too. This is the type of series that, if you're a baseball fan, you have to watch. The Yanks and Rays both have it all. They have great pitching. The Yanks can throw C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Phil Hughes, and when healthy, Andy Pettitte at you. The Rays counter with All-Star starter David Price, recent no-hit hurler Matt Garza, and Jeff Niemann. The bullpens have those lock-down closers with maybe the best ever in the Yanks' Mariano Rivera and ...

Go ahead and make your plans. The Tampa Bay Rays are a playoff lock. I know there is still three-fourths of the season left. It doesn't matter. The Rays are going to the post season. Let's run some numbers. Tampa Bay has a record of 30-11 at the one quarter mark. That's a pace to win 120 games. Win 100 games and you are a lock to not only make the postseason, but have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. So the Rays can slack off 20 wins from their current pace and still be looking at home field advantage. That means that the Rays can lose approximately seven more games per 40-game stretch than they did to start the season. That is a record of about 23-17. Who thinks the Rays can't go 23-17 with this pitching staff, this defense and this offense? Anybody? 23-17 three more times gives the Rays 99 ...

When I was growing up, I learned everything I know about baseball from watching TV. My dad was more of a football guy. He still is. He knows the basics when it comes to baseball, how to throw, catch, camp under a fly ball, etc. But baseball has a lot of little things in it that can really make the difference between winning and losing. Things that are not really obvious, but make a lot of sense once you learn them. When these situations came up, the TV announcers knew them, and would always point them out. Professional baseball players used to always follow these little guidelines. It was probably taught to them way before reaching the big leagues. If not, surely it was taught then. Things like not swinging at the first pitch after the batter before you just walked on four pitches Or how about taking a strike when your team is ...