SOCHI OLYMPICS // MLB: "the GREAT RETURN."

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. SOCHI OLYMPICS // MLB:‘the Great Return . . . SOCHI OLYMPICS---HOW could anyone watching the last five days of Olympic sports competition not come to revere the athletes from around the world dazzling us with their physical, mental and highly spirited accomplishments. If only to demonstrate to viewers how athletes keep stretching the envelope of human capacity for future endeavors within and away from sports venues and gyms, the Olympics make sense. Let the dollars for Olympiad infrastructure and opening ceremonies go to the cities in Brazil and South Korea, where the next summer and winter games will take place, the results paying forward in inspiration and knowledge for what future generations can do with learning abilities, courage and persistence. In the days since February 7, we’ve seen skiers negotiating steep moguls rapidly, telling us that obstacles can be challenged and dominated with skill and grace; Nordic-style skiers going double-digit kilometers, stopping twice to strike targets with rifles and never missing a shot, operating not too fast, never too slow, economizing energy in order to maximize it across the time required to reach a prescribed goal, signaling that there has to be order in our efforts; Downhill skiers following critical paths with lightning speed, showing necessity of strategizing a journey in order to accomplish it optimally, be it for seconds, minutes or hours; Speed-skaters charging ahead as though super-heroes headed to stop meteorites from striking the planet, showing determination to give all that can be given yet always under control; Curlers reminding us of what sharpest focus for studied movement and carefully measured energy can do. And, there’s more to come. Here’s a schedule, today through Friday---FEBRUARY 11: Ice Hockey, Speed-skating, Figure Skating, Curling, Ski-jumping, Biathlon, X-Country Skiing, Freestyle Skiing, Snowboarding, Luge // FEB. 12: Ice Hockey, Speed-skating, Figure Skating, Curling, Nordic-combined, Alpine Skiing, Freestyle Skiing, Snowboarding, Luge // FEB. 13: Ice Hockey, Speed-skating, Speed-skating/”short track,” Figure Skating, Curling, Biathlon, X-Country Skiing, Freestyle Skiing, Skeleton, Luge // FEB. 14: Ice Hockey, Figure Skating, Curling, Ski-jumping, Biathlon, X-Country Skiing, Alpine Skiing, Freestyle Skiing, Skeleton. . . // . . . MLB---OUT of seasonal and rising expectations, American professional baseball will kick in come April, reminding us that punishing winters cannot last, though many of us will miss the NFL---well, for a few seconds anyway after that first pitch is thrown on Opening Day, spinning forward another year of “recorded” U.S. pro-baseball. We were playing the game in the latter half of the 1800’s, but it was in 1900 that professionally organized teams in cities across America began record-keeping as they competed in pennant races, and in 1903 the first World Series was held, won by Boston against Pittsburgh. There are now 30 MLB teams divided equally within the American League and the National League, but until the late 1960’s the game was still dominated by less than a dozen ball-clubs, the most American League races being won by the New York Yankees (31 victories from 1921 until 1962), and the Philadelphia Athletics (nine wins from 1902 until 1931), the most within the National League by the N.Y. Giants (13 victories from 1904 until 1951) and the St. Louis Cardinals (14 wins from 1926 until 2011). So, never before has the playing field been as level as it has been since year 2000. In the past 13 years, 18 different teams have reached the World Series, no team there more than twice. If there’s an era now, it’s the era of increased diversity, though maybe not enough diversity. While different teams have won during playoffs and competed in the WS during most years since Y-2000, usually the same teams have comprised the playoffs year after year, and the teams residing middle of the standings and at the bottom have been repeats. Within the AL West the Texas Rangers began 2013 in first position and finished second, within the AL Central the Kansas City Royals and the Detroit Tigers remained within the top three all season, and in the AL East the Boston Red Sox began the season at the top and finished at the top. The Houston Astros, the Toronto Blue Jays and the NL’s Miami Marlins began 2013 at the bottom of their respective divisions and they finished the season that way. The majority of these teams began and finished with similar standings the year before. The Colorado Rockies finished low-end in 2012 and 2013. However, changes in rosters occur in ways making the game seem different. New additions and switches within the Rockies rotation will probably alter the Rockies fate, sending the team upward. Questions abide? Can the N.Y. Yankees get to the top without Derek Jeter? Will the Tigers maintain? Have the L.A. Dodgers ever repeated success in the annual standings? Will numerous hitters demonstrate breakthroughs and frustrate pitching staffs from coast-to-coast? Can the Astros rise up from the bottom by again moneyballing the game? Have the Oakland A’s solved the mystery, why they lost their touch for success under the playoff shadow? What can the Rockies batting order complete without Todd Helton? END/ml.