NBA:  OKC Down, Nuggets GoForward // MLB: the Unexpected    

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 every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

SPECIAL OLYMPICS SUMMER GAMES, COLORADO, June 2, @ UNC, Greeley: for more information: specialolympicsco.org , or: 800-777-5767.

NBA:    BY achieving a victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday, April 25, the Denver Nuggets became a single winning game away from achieving the NBA-Western Conference’s number six playoff seed, which whipping the Minnesota Timberwolves in Denver’s last game of the 2011/12 season would guarantee. On Thursday, April 26, the Nuggets took care of business, they defeated the Timberwolves, 131-102.

The Nuggets have been a winning team, and here’s the better side of the good: in addition to the Nuggets maintaining its 103.7 points per game average throughout most of the regular season, nine of its games won were versus the likely to be post-season contenders, among them, the Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers, the Miami Heat, the L.A. Clippers, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, the Orlando Magic, and the Timberwolves. Only one of the nine wins was by fewer than 103 points, vs. the Lakers, 99-90.

Five of those nine Nuggets-defeated teams are already the number one franchise of their division---the Thunder, the Lakers, the Celtics, the Heat, and the Bulls, an indication that the post-Carmelo Anthony/Billups Nuggets haven’t been the left-behind franchise they were expected to be since the 2011 Nuggets revision began with the popular star shooters Anthony and Billups sent from Denver to the New York Knicks in exchange for several unknowns from the Knicks.

The only leading division team that the Nuggets haven’t beaten this year with those former Knicks aboard, are the San Antonio Spurs, a contest during which the Nuggets were one point shy of three digits, losing 114-99. Only in four of 66 games played this season have the Nuggets finished with less than 90 points, neither of the four below 81.

Other Nuggets stats address the team’s ride into the post-season. Not only have seven Nuggets players achieved double-digit averages, 11 Nuggets players have double-digit averages in the execution of blocks, 13 in the employment of steals, 15 with double-digit assists (four of these players have triple-digit assist totals), and 12 Nuggets players have triple-digit rebound totals, while 10 have high triple-digit field goal totals. Noteworthy about these Nuggets individual player stats is that there are numerous other NBA franchises with players that have higher numbers in most of the listed categories, yet across the rosters of those teams are fewer players with double- and triple-digit totals, and also fewer double-digit scorers than the Nuggets have had, though the Nuggets highest ppg holder hasn’t attained more than a 16.3 ppg average (guard, Ty Lawson), when several NBA teams can boast of having shooters with 20+ ppg averages. Reflected, then, is the Nuggets emphasis on teamwork over star power.

No Nuggets player stands out the way that the Thunder’s Kevin Durant, the Lakers Kobe Bryant or the Heat’s LeBron James can---Nuggets formidability has maintained from head coach George Karl’s insistence on the “We” instead of the “Me,” and that is what could bring the Nuggets past the first round of the playoffs and serve as a model for future NBA reliance on a motto, “Teamwork reigns!” ending any rushes within NBA teams to trade three or four above-the-margin “team first” players for the next Durant, Bryant or LeBron. It’s a safe guess that in recent months the New York Knicks front office and head coach have been paying lots of attention to “We” over “Me,” even with that Linsanity breakthrough.  

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NBA:  Denver Nuggets, Playoff-bound  

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 every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

SPECIAL OLYMPICS SUMMER GAMES, COLORADO, June 2, @ UNC, Greeley: for more information: specialolympicsco.org , or: 800-777-5767.

NBA:    FOUR years ago, I asked then Denver Nuggets star forward, Carmelo Anthony, to reveal his dominant basketball wish. The answer: help a franchise get to the playoffs, reach the finals and become an NBA championship team. Well, one could say that Anthony helped the Denver Nuggets get to the playoffs this season and the last “by not showing up,” by urging a trade that took him, and then Denver guard, Chauncey Billups, to New York, the Nuggets having to remake hastily with newcomers Danilo Gallinari, Al Harrington, Wilson Chandler, Kenneth Faried, Kosta Koufos, Andre Miller and others, while putting new pressure on guards Ty Lawson and Arron Afflalo, meanwhile the dependable center/forward Kenyon Martin and reserve guard J.R. Smith were off to China during  an NBA lockout that forced up a 66-game 2011/2012 NBA season.

Not four years ago, nor long before that, have the Nuggets been a Hollywood tale, coming from the lowest tier to where they’d be waving victory banners. Most commendably, they are a team that has been to the playoffs “nine years straight”---there’s consistency in that, yes? What does beg highlighting is that the Nuggets have always played hard under circumstances that usually take other teams out of the running for post-season entry, e.g., best players injured when needed the most, relied-upon head coach George Karl struck with cancer and away from the NBA for more than a month, Anthony and Billups off to the Knicks.

Yet in the many years that the Nuggets have made the playoffs, none were easy slide-ins. The Nuggets have been, no, they are, a team that progresses a game or two forward, next goes three back, soon startles with a stretch of wins against leading franchises but goes back to losing, scrambling forward again to achieve enough wins to make it under the wire and be seeded for that first playoff round.

This year, the Nuggets big and meaningful leap began with a Nuggets 101-86 win against the Houston Rockets on April 16, lockboxed for the playoffs on April 21 with a 118-107 victory against the Phoenix Suns, then confirmation of the team’s drive and skills shown with a back-to-back 101-74 win versus the Orlando Magic, on April 22. Of note is that the three pivotal wins were vs. teams that have been on par with, or ahead of, the Nuggets since the current season began, the message being that the Nuggets won’t be shoved aside easily during the playoff’s first round.

It did not look good for the Nuggets, however, when the team’s March and early April losses indicated a level of defense that the team seemed unable to reach. The defense needed for a playoff berth seemed to be eluding them, and that is what Nuggets head coach, George Karl, probably began stressing at the expense of his players positioning themselves to block and taking some rebounds. Karl must have wanted the Nuggets players to put the kind of pressure on that would keep their opponents from actualizing pre-planned plays, therefore from shooting until improvising in that last second allowed by the shot clock, because that is what has been happening enough times per quarter, evident in the mere 74 points attained by the Magic, April 22.

As the Nuggets defense has matured, there’s been no drawback in the Nuggets aggressive offense. The Nuggets have maintained their total points-per-game average, now 103.7, ahead of all teams that the franchise has confronted this year when the latter are totaled as an aggregate. Seven Nuggets players have ppg averages in double digits, led by Lawson’s 16.3, Afflalo next with 15.2.

With the recent addition of JaVale McGee (he has an unusually hefty number of blocks to his credit) and Lawson having accrued 78 steals this year, there’s indication that the Nuggets defense can stay above-the-margin, sending the team into round two of the playoffs, perhaps beyond that. On Wednesday, April 25, the Nuggets will face the Oklahoma City Thunder, a team expected to be the hottest challenge for the year’s Western Conference title, a win taking the victor to the NBA finals---Wednesday’s vs. Thunder game is the Nuggets last chance to determine what could be their more difficult moments during the 2011/12 post-season.

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NFL” the DRAFT,” some Observations //  MLB:  Rockies, Going Higher    

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 every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

            SPECIAL OLYMPICS SUMMER GAMES, COLORADO, June 2, @ UNC, Greeley: for more information: specialolympicsco.org , or: 800-777-5767.

NFL:   LAST year’s Penn State revelation, and illegalities at other schools, portrayed college football as being largely immoral and damaging to its talent and its continuance. But this month, more than 150 college players have been announced as being ready for the National Football League, suggesting that the college game is a lot more worthy and productive than last year’s scandals would have anyone believe, top of the list of 12 NFL quarterback possibilities being the amazing QB from Stanford, Andrew Luck.

But only five schools delivering NFL prospects onto a list of the top 30 college players nationwide are from the east, and three of those are from the southeast. Within the top 30, three picks are from the University of Alabama, and three are from Stanford, the only schools with multiple draft picks within the top 30.

All told, the top 100 of this year’s draft picks are from more than 90 colleges/universities, the lion’s share from the south and the west.

Of the top 12 NFL QB’s, none are from eastern schools. Eight are from southern institutions, four from western schools. From the South, Alabama has delivered picks in four different categories: running back, fullback, defensive tackle, safety. Stanford has delivered for five categories: QB, RB, tight end, tackle and guard. The categories filled with the most picks are running backs and wide receivers, 20 having been identified for each of the two categories. Within the top 30 picks, three of the potentials are QB’s---Luck, Robert Griffin III from Baylor, and Ryan Tannehill, from Texas A&M. Yet among the remaining 28, only one is a running back---Trent Richardson, from Alabama, while four are WR’s. Within the top 60, there are no kickers, no punters.

With all of the above noted, standing out is the fact that there’s an imbalance among college offerings regarding required player positions, e.g., there must be more than one NFL franchise in need of a kicker and/or punter, and there are definitely franchise owners who’d consider betting the farm for another good QB. While this imbalance isn’t horribly askew, colleges delivering a better across-the-board position-availability for what’s truly needed by the NFL’s franchises would be a good happening.

Also noticeable is that no draft pick within the top 30 is from a small school, and less than a dozen picks within the top 150 are from small schools.

There’s no NCAA rule saying there has to be a perfect balance among type players provided for the annual NFL draft picks, or a nationwide “geographical” balance when it comes to colleges/universities receiving and then providing the best football players for the professional game (this could be out of more eastern seaboard and central-U.S. schools being part of the equation). And there's no NCAA rule saying that the smaller colleges/universities must have new opportunities to nurture more and better football players for NFL postings. However, such rules could deliver a wider and more balanced athlete development system for American football, along with economic and cultural infusions for the wider, more balanced range of colleges/universities and their communities.

MLB:   Tuesday’s Colorado Rockies versus San Diego Padres game at Coors Field (April 17) will certainly be remembered if only because the Rockies win went to LHP, Jamie Moyer, which anointed him as the oldest pitcher in baseball history to win a game that he started. At 49 and 150 days old, Moyer surpassed a record held since the 1930’s. But the game should also be remembered for some outstanding work by the Rockies infield, which included two seemingly faster-than-sound double-plays. Should the manner in which those plays were conducted expand into a consistent defense throughout most of the rest of the MLB season, teams challenging the Rockies will be of the low-score variety (forget shortstop Troy Tulowitzki’s game errors, it’s the most inconsistent thing about this infielder).

Too, six Rockies hitters managed seven hits on Tuesday, including a home run by center fielder, Dexter Fowler, and two solid hits punched by right fielder, Michael Cuddyer. Also, Moyer entered the game on Tuesday emblematic of a pitching staff holding to an average ERA under 3.0. And, on Tuesday, RHP Rafael Betancourt proved himself a wise choice as "closer" entering play before a final inning.

Then, on Wednesday, Rockies RHP, Juan Nicasio, proved that he could be among the MLB’s better quality starters, achieving an 8-4 win against the Padres. In this game, the Rockies pounded out 12 hits, one of them a home run by Cuddyer. Before Thursday, the Rockies had reached .500, that midway mark separating the good from the not so good. The Colorado team is not only now in third place of the National League’s Western Division (behind Arizona---7-5, .563), it is seventh among the NL’s 16 teams, tied with Milwaukee and Miami.

Of the Rockies remaining April series, it has a chance of sweeping three of them, or winning the three by two games each (vs. Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and the Mets). The series that the Rockies will be faced with at the end of April with the Los Angeles Dodgers could be the team’s toughest challenge since the 2012 MLB season opened. The Dodgers are currently atop the NL-West, at 9-3, .750.

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MLB:   Colorado Rockies, That Walk-Off Homer & The Age-Myth  // NBA: Denver Nuggets, Other Teams & The "Final Stretch."    

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 every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

            SPECIAL OLYMPICS SUMMER GAMES, COLORADO, June 2, @ UNC, Greeley: for more information: specialolympicsco.org , or: 800-777-5767.

MLB:   A fervent baseball fan is seated in his living room, in front of a televised Colorado Rockies/Arizona Diamondbacks game. It’s mid-April, and the fan is certain that bad luck joined the Rockies after rain sent lots of fans home from Coors Field before the bottom of the ninth, now in progress---the 'Backs could win this one, after the Rockies held a big lead.

Arizona’s closer, J.J. Putz, has forced the Rockies into two outs. “It looks real bad for the Rockies,” the armchair fan claims, and his wife throws a quote into the equation, “It aint over ‘til it’s over,” for the Rockies have a man on base.

Colorado first baseman, Todd Helton, goes to the plate, and the fan at home turns to his wife and says confidently, “A few years ago, Helton would deliver the needed home run. He’d smack the ball into the stands, sending his guy around the bases, himself, too, the Rockies taking the Diamondbacks down past the count. Helton’s too old now,” he adds, “if Helton doesn’t strike out he’ll probably hit short, the ball will be caught, the Diamondbacks will win.”

But Helton’s the intrepid pro---he sends the ball into the stands above right field, game over, the Rockies walk away as winners.

How does the saying go, the one visible on a lot of T-shirts worn under the Florida sun? “Old age will beat youth every  .  .  . ”  but what’s important is our realizing that the age thing warning athletes to quit at 30 and start selling products on TV if they can’t get a gig on ESPN, has shifted upward. The 35+ Helton is still capable of the walk-off home run and attaining a high on-base percentage, he’s still one of the best first basemen in professional baseball. “Maybe that 35+ is the new 25+,” shouts the wife of our living room commando.

Consider Colorado hurler, Jamie Moyer, at 49. He could be the oldest pitcher still rostered for professional baseball, and he may be so next year, too; his mediocre 2012 start is not a product of age, statically he’s ahead of several younger MLB pitchers when included are his spring training numbers, (inserted by editor after the fact, i.e., it happened::) knowing his next start could see him making history, becoming the oldest pitcher in professional baseball to win a ballgame. Also consider that an 82 year-old man climbed Mount Everest in recent years, though some analysts suspect that he had to be helped in the final stretch by more than one Sherpa.

A man in his mid-90’s completed a marathon last year. Check out tennis clubs and you’ll find players in their 60’s and 70’s rated 5.0 and 6.0, and Coloradans are familiar with men and women over 70 who ski the black diamond slopes at Aspen, Steamboat Springs, Vail and Winter Park. Only a few weeks ago, newspapers reported that several Masters Track & Field records were surpassed by a New York-based woman in her 60’s. For several years, Colorado has had a league for baseball players 60 years old and over, players who can hit and field as well as athletes half their age, although the league’s pitchers haven’t been hurling faster than around 55 mph.

In the NBA, there are players in their mid-thirties, still crack shooters, Kobe Bryant among them. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played basketball into his 40’s. Jerry Rice, one of the best NFL receivers ever, was afield in his 40’s, and golfer Jack Nicklaus won the Masters when 46. Tennis player, Martina Navratilova, won mixed doubles at Wimbledon when past 45. Heavyweight George Foreman’s best work in the ring occurred after he turned 40. Cancer kicked butt for awhile against Denver Nuggets head coach, George Karl, and he just turned 60 as possibly the more active and more intellectually alert among NBA leaders, several much younger than Karl.

Baseball’s Satchel Paige, one of the finest pitchers of all time, played into his 50’s, and MLB pitcher Nolan Ryan didn’t retire from active play until in his mid-40’s. Nascar driver Richard Petty’s final victory occurred during his 40’s.

Todd Helton, old?  Keep watching, he’s begun a better year than his last several.

NBA:  The Denver Nuggets are still playoff contenders, thanks to a big win against the Houston Rockets on Monday, April 16. The Nuggets are holding at second place in the NBA’s Western Conference-Northwest Division, at 34-27, two up on Utah, and they’re in sixth place in the conference itself, tied with last year’s NBA championship team, the Dallas Mavericks. Had the opposite of Monday night occurred and the Rockets beat the Nuggets, it could have been all over for Denver as a team headed into the post-season, in that there are no easy nights ahead. Of the five games that the Nuggets have left to play, three will be against teams holding better 2011/12 records than Denver has---tomorrow vs. the L.A. Clippers (37-23), then the Orlando Magic (36-25) on April 22, and the Oklahoma City Thunder (44-16), April 25.

Far ahead of the pack in the Western Conference, in addition to leading team, the Thunder, are the San Antonio Spurs (42-16) and the L.A./ Lakers (39-22). Leading the Eastern Conference are the Chicago Bulls (46-15), the Miami Heat (43-17) and the Boston Celtics (36-25). The teams way low in the NBA this year are within the Eastern Conference, Michael Jordan’s Charlotte Bobcats, with an abysmal 7-53 record, followed by the Washington Wizards (15-46). Weakest within the Western Conference are the New Orleans Hornets (19-42).

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NBA:  Nuggets & the Playoffs // MLB:  Early Expectations; Colorado Rockies.   

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 every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

            SPECIAL OLYMPICS SUMMER GAMES, COLORADO, June 2, @ UNC, Greeley: for more information: specialolympicsco.org , or: 800-777-5767.

NBA:    IT’s now about the numbers and positioning, about where a team fits along a vertical line reflecting wins and losses across a season about to end, and not so much about how far the Denver Nuggets have come but how they might compare with teams that they may face during a first round of the year’s playoffs, for instance, having to compete against the Oklahoma City Thunder now ahead of the Nuggets by 10 games (42 wins, the Nuggets are 32 wins and 26 losses), holding first place of the Western Conference’s Northwest Division (Denver’s in second place, but only by one game); or, the San Antonio Spurs, or the L.A. Lakers, teams that the Nuggets rarely beat by more than a few points.

In Wednesday’s bout with the WC-NW’s last place team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Nuggets went from a 24-point lead to finish 117-113, which pointed to an issue that could cause a playoff-designated Nuggets to go by the wayside during a first playoff-round: a late-in-the-game U-turn within a defense that weakens and gets sloppy enough for even a mediocre team to start scoring huge against the Nuggets. Yes, in that game, Ty Lawson, Danilo Gallinari, Kenneth Faried and Aaron Afllalo combined for 79 points, and the Nuggets have achieved 37 three-pointers in its last four competitions---the shooting power and accuracy is alive and well among the Nuggets starters and reserve, but the Nuggets defense has been inconsistent throughout the 66-game season.

A downside is this: of the Nuggets eight remaining games, six are challenges by WC teams at par with, or ahead of, the Nuggets in the race for a playoff slot: today vs. the Lakers, followed by games against Houston (2x), the L.A. Clippers, the Phoenix Suns, the Thunder. Unless the Nuggets can improve their defense tactics to where the team can suppress opposing shooters enough to maintain a lead during each of the six upcoming WC games, even if it’s only of a few points up, well, it can be grueling and sad season finish, with playoff impossibility full on the horizon.

If the Nuggets defense that is needed fails to materialize, then the Denver team will need to produce an offense that scores as many points as it had during Wednesday’s Minnesota game, meanwhile keeping fouls to a record minimum, otherwise, “goodbye playoffs.

MLB:     In popular author John Grisham’s new novel about baseball, a rookie finishes four for four in his first MLB game appearance, which happens almost “never,” no more than fulfillment of the expectations that experts and fans have for their preferred team’s first weeks of an MLB season. The 10 or more games played in these weeks usually surprise us, not with a lot of amazing feats or comical blunders, instead with a lot of soft opposites from what ballplayers were expected to do based on a previous season or their accomplishments, or lack thereof, during spring training, for example, the New York Yankees were expected to be ahead of the pack from the get-go and it hasn’t happened, and the Los Angeles Dodgers were to have a nearly numberless start and they took a series away from the San Diego Padres, one of the three games a shutout.

And the Colorado Rockies beat the San Francisco Giants, 17-8, unexpectedly on Wednesday, April 11, neutralizing the Giants CY Young award pitcher, Tim Lincecum, after suffering a 7-0 loss to the Giants on Monday, April 9. The Rockies lost to the Giants again on Thursday, 4-2. They are now sub-par, if you will, having lost four of six games.

But it was Wednesday night’s win vs. the Giants that seemed to address both the potential and stigmas of an MLB franchise that seems to show up in the first two weeks of April. We want to think that last year’s positive attributes are still around and that the baggage is gone, and then we see both and they are fully animated. Last year, the Rockies were able to pile on runs, they had one of the best records of total runs achieved, but they kept giving away runs, too, enough of the latter for the Rockies to end 2011 under .500.

What good are runs if your defense can’t produce “outs” quickly during consecutive innings? Having purchased 17 runs against any team is remarkable, especially vs. a pitcher like Lincecum, his reserve and the Giants defense, but giving up 19 runs in three games is something to worry about.

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MLB: The Competitive Edge For A Feast of Games //

A Backgrounder.

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 every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

SPECIAL OLYMPICS SUMMER GAMES, COLORADO: for more information: specialolympicsco.org

MLB:    MAJOR League Baseball's Opening Day is already past but still resonating: up ahead are games across six months of regulation play, then division and league battles, next the World Series, 30 teams aspiring to be numero uno after a 4-0 WS win, if not that then attainment of the lesser dream, a 4-3 WS take.      

A fair question, then: “What’s required for any of the world’s best baseball clubs to race ahead of all others?” The answer seems obvious: state-of-the-art skills, a.k.a., “TALENT, all the way to the hilt!” 

But every MLB franchise has lots of “TALENT.” Last year, the Los Angeles Dodgers included Most Valuable Player, Matt Kemp, and Cy Young award winner, Clayton Kershaw, but the Dodgers did not win the National League crown and get to the WS.  

A lot more than super-talent is required for a professional baseball team to lead the pack, to stay in contention for a playoff berth. More precisely, and as touted recently in a New York Times article, a big need is, “Talent PRESERVATION”---keeping talent afield from April through September and into the post-season, a component of which is “injury prevention.” Imagine the Colorado Rockies Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez unable to play for around, say, 12 games, because of sprained ankles and/or turned thumbs---these two are among the game’s top hitters and fielders, they are the Rockies clean-up guys, rescuers for runs and for mailing “outs” to the opposition.

Another component of success is a catcher who can be as highly effective in August and September as he could be in April through July, which requires great stamina, maybe serious cross-training and physical therapy. Add, extra coaching and consultants for player performance enhancement, especially for hitters (MLB teams can hire an extra hitting coach).

Another necessity for that competitive edge is, as the NYT article emphasized, a farm system deep with talent and with players who can be called up to the majors in a day or so should a Tulowitzki, a Gonzalez, that effective catcher or a super hurler be injured or suddenly occupy Slumpland.   

Another concept for that leading edge is wise attainment of young players, especially those amenable to contracts spanning multiple years, enough time for talent to mature in ways fitting team policy and strategies, which includes caution regarding draft picks, noting that the number one pick isn’t always the best fit for a vacancy.

Too, there’s belief in that behind-the-scenes laptop or IPAD guy who can compute situational factors and come up with options for a next move, if the MLB club doesn’t already have a team manager who, with pencil behind the ear and scratch pad handy, thinks better than, and outmaneuvers, the electronics, and many MLB managers can in a heartbeat.

So---the teams employing “talent PRESERVATION” best will probably be those closest to the top of their divisions come September.

*   *    *

MLB BACKGROUND (a previous submission): 

NO-one is absolutely certain who invented the game as we know it today, or when it showed up as America’s gift to itself, but there’s evidence that it started long before the Civil War, sometime in the mid-1820’s, and that it evolved from a game played other side of the Atlantic by Brits who wanted something other than kicking a leather ball up, down and sideways across a muddy field. There’s a letter from famous American writer, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written to his father, that underscores the early existence of the game, and there’s later evidence of early baseball from a rule book established by “The New York Knickerbockers Base Ball Club,” published in 1848. By the time baseball greats Ty Cobb (Detroit), Babe Ruth (NYY), Lou Gehrig (NYY), Rogers Hornsby (STL), Honus Wagner (Pitts), Christy Mathewson (NYG) and Grover Alexander (Phila) were playing the game in the first half of the 20^th Century, it had been around as a professional activity for more than twice the age of the oldest among them.

More than a dozen players inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame began their careers in the 1800’s, and more than a dozen no-hit games were recorded by 1900 (one of the earlier official statistics). Another early-on statistic is this: the longest hitting streak that Joe DiMaggio (NYY) surpassed with his 56 straight hits in 1941 belonged to Willie Keeler (Baltimore), who punched out 44 in 1897. Too, unassisted triple plays have been 100 years apart, the first in 1909, the last in 2009 by Philadelphia against a New York Mets batter.

In the National League, no hitter has achieved an annual batting average higher than Hornsby’s .424, as far back as 1924, with the highest in the American League belonging to Nap Lajoie (Phila), 422, achieved in 1901, with Cobb being close with .420, earned in 1911 (Cobb is the only batter in MLB history to lead his league in batting average for 11 years, five of them straight, 1911-1915.)

In 1931, Gehrig produced the most RBI’s ever for a given year, 184. Discounting what batters have accomplished while using performance enhancement drugs, the most home runs in a single year were delivered by Roger Maris (NYY), 61, in 1961, surpassing Ruth’s 1921 achievement---59, the longest held home run record. To date, less than 20 hitters have provided more than 50 home runs per year.  .  .  And, the most games won by a pitcher during a single season were by Washington D.C.’s Walter Johnson, 36, in 1913, and the best ERA achieved by a NL pitcher for a given year belongs to Three Finger Brown (yes, his recorded name), 1.04, in 1906. Mathewson (NY) followed with a 1.14 ERA, in 1909. The best ERA by an AL hurler belongs to Boston’s Dutch Leonard, 1.01, in 1914. The most strikeouts achieved in a year by any pitcher in either league were by Philadelphia’s Rube Waddell, 349, in 1904.

Fast forward now to 2011, the year that the Cardinals took the 100+ year-old World Series away from the Texas Rangers, in seven games. It was a year proving, like most years in baseball since the late 1800’s, how difficult it is to surpass records established by the great players of an earlier era, for instance, the highest NL batting average achieved in 2011 was .337, developed by Jose Reyes, N.Y. Mets, and the most 2011 home runs from a NL batter came from Matt Kemp of the L.A. Dodgers, 39, then by Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder and STL’s Albert Pujols being close with 38 and 37 respectively.

The highest 2011 AL batting average belonged to Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera, .344, and the best number of AL home runs evolved from Toronto’s Jose Bautista, 43. Kemp also produced the most RBI’s in 2011, 126. And, the most hits achieved in 2011 were by the Texas Rangers Mike Young and by Boston’s Adrian Gonzalez, each with 213. Indicative of who may be the better hitters in 2012, and best contributors for runs for their teams, are the On Base Percentages achieved by Cincinnati’s Joey Votto, .416, Fielder, .415, STL’s Lance Berkman, .412, and Kemp’s .399 .  .  .  2011’s best pitcher-ERA’s belonged to the Dodgers Clayton Kershaw, 2.28, and to Detroit’s Justin Verlander, 2.40. Kershaw won the most games in 2011---21, as did Arizona’s Ian Kennedy. Verlander led the AL in games won during 2011---24.

Look now, if you will, to a ball club reflective of most MLB teams above the margin and that is a possible playoff contender for 2012---the Colorado Rockies, which, in 2011, finished poorly, yet when it comes to team batting average, to hits, to RBI’s, home runs, OBP and slugging percentage, the Rockies are definitely in the top half of the NL’s 16 teams, in fact, they are, “across all categories,” in fourth place within the NL, and in first place within their division, the NL-West. Too, the Rockies team batting average, .258, is fourth highest in the NL. While the 2011 WS and NL championship team produced 765 runs, the Rockies provided 735, along with the Cincinnati Reds the most of any NL team back of the WS Cards.

The Rockies were also number two in the NL regarding number of hits provided in 2011, 1,477, behind STL’s 1,513. And, the Rockies had one more home run than the Cards produced in 2011---163. But, the irony of baseball is that which belongs to most team sports: the number of games won remains that which keeps a franchise out front, no matter what else has happened or will happen. In baseball, wins come from avoiding “outs” and having the time, the power and skills to put “runs” on the board, which needs players with high OBP’s and lots of RBI’s, and pitchers who can maintain low ERA’s, hold hits to a minimum and develop the strikeouts that keep the opposition from scoring (number of strikeouts isn’t as important as when they happen, e.g., a strikeout when the other team has loaded the bases and it’s a three-and-two count).

Well, the 2011 figures imply that the Rockies can reconfigure for more wins, as do the roster changes, and that playoff contention is possible. Here’s what the lineup could look like for the Rockies as the new season commences: Lead-off batter, CF Dexter Fowler, followed by 2B Marco Scutaro (newcomer), then by LF Carlos Gonzalez; SS Troy Tulowitzki; 1B Todd Helton; RF Michael Cuddyer (new); C Ramon Hernandez (newcomer); 3B Casey Blake (new). Is there power here? Gonzalez hit 26 home runs in 2011, plus 54 RBI’s. Tulowitzki delivered 30 home runs and 105 RBI’s, Cuddyer, 20 home runs and 70 RBI’s, Helton 14 home runs and 69 RBI’s, and then there’s the still powerful Jason Giambi, 13 home runs and 32 RBI’s as a DH in 2011.

As for the Rockies pitching staff, last year’s best ERA belonged to right hand starter, Jhoulys Chacin---3.62, and to a right hand reliever who in 2012 will be the Rockies primary closer, Rafael Betancourt---2.89. The left hand starter to be counted on will be rookie, Drew Pomeranz. Neither of these pitchers need to be a Kershaw or Verlander, but they’ll have to uptick their skills in order to keep the Rockies from giving back runs that the team can accrue in their half-innings.

     

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ON ASSIGNMENT---NEXT POSTING WILL BE TUESDAY, APRIL 10---mlR