With my favorite time of year approaching-baseball season is just over the horizon-I think that it is time for my annual baseball preview. Last year, I looked at every team in the majors and did a questionable job of predicting playoff and World Series results. So, to avoid the embarrassment that comes with that type of failure, I will evaluate different players from each division in my preview this year.
Starting with the NL East, it looks like the Braves will again be the cream of the crop. With Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine showing no signs of age and a healthy John Smoltz closing out games, the Braves pitching staff should be as good as ever. The key change, thoug,h is on the offensive side of the ball. The big addition made by the Braves this offseason was Gary Sheffield. Sheffield has been a dominant hitter throughout his career and he has shown no signs of slowing down. Pencilling him into the lineup right behind Chipper Jones-who has carried the Braves on his back over the last two seasons-will make the Braves offense instantly better.
The most improved team in the division is the Mets. In a complete overhaul, the Mets were able to unload Robin Ventura, who has disappointed in the past two seasons, add Mo Vaughn and Jeromy Burnitz, reacquire Roger Cedeno and make their biggest addition of all, Roberto Alomar. In any debate of the greatest second basemen in the history of the game, Alomar is always near the top and he is nowhere near the end of his career. He plays great defense, is a prototypical hitter at the top of the lineup and allows the Mets to move Edgardo Alfonzo back to his natural position of third base. If the Mets are able to hold their pitching staff together, they will be able to make a good run at the division title.
The Phillies were the surprise team in the division last year, but during the offseason they have done very little to improve their team. In fact, it is their inactivity that has brought the most attention to their offseason. Scott Rolen, the NL Rookie of the Year only five short years ago, will be a free agent after this season. During the offseason, the team was going to either trade him or sign him to a long-term contract. Neither one happened. Rolen turned down a 10-year, $140 million contract offer and has said that he will test the free agent market next winter. The only major addition the Phils will make is catcher Mike Lieberthal, who will be returning from injury. After an encouraging campaign last year, it looks like the Phillies will take a step backwards this season.
The next two teams in the division, the Florida Marlins and the Montreal Expos, have had offseasons full of turmoil. In what is essentially the strangest baseball trade since two players swapped wives, children and dogs in the mid-70s-yes, even the family dogs were involved in the swap-the front offices and support staffs of the Expos and Marlins were essentially replaced by each other. Jeffrey Loria bought the Marlins from John Henry, who went on to buy the Red Sox. In addition, MLB took over the Expos and is trying to install much of the former Marlin brass in Montreal.
The Marlins have a brighter future than the Expos, if only because they aren't one of the teams that have been prominently mentioned in contraction talks.
But they could be a very good team in the next few years. With a young pitching staff led by Brad Penny, A.J. Burnett, Matt Clement and phenom Josh Beckett, the Marlins have the young arms that could make a Braves-like rotation for the next decade. The Expos have a number of fine young players as well, including Vladimir Guerrero and Javier Vasquez, but it is unlikely that they will be able to do anything this season. The city of Montreal hasn't supported the team at all, the Expos are being run by the commissioner's office and they will either move or be contracted during the next offseason. All Montreal can hope to do is be competitive so that another city will welcome them with open arms, because this will be their final year in Montreal.
Open ice, international flavor
The one event in the Olympics that has captivated me so far has been men's hockey. It is one sport that truly benefits from the Olympic experience and, so far ,there have been a number of great matchups.
Men's hockey benefits from two different factors. One is the larger sheet of ice on which the international game is played. The Olympic sized rink is 15 feet wider than an NHL rink and this difference allows skilled players more space to make things happen. The second factor is that the Olympic tournament is the only major international hockey event in which the best players from each country play. With the inclusion of NHL players from all different countries, an element of national pride is injected into the games. Just watch the passion of the Canadians, fighting for their first gold medal in the Games or World Championships since 1952, or watch the way in which the Americans have bonded together despite their regular season clashes in the NHL.
Another great part of the Olympics so far has been its parity. In the women's game, basically the U.S. and Canada will duke it out for the title. But in the men's draw, there are at least four teams, and maybe as many as six, that have a legitimate shot at winning the gold medal. The most intriguing opening round matchup will be between Russia and the 1998 champion Czech Republic, but it surely is not the only matchup that will draw attention. As I mentioned last week, there are a number of Olympic sports that are superfluous and have diluted the meaning of an Olympic gold medal. Men's hockey is certainly not one of them.
Traffic jams at 200mph
NASCAR racing has had trouble in recent years at so called "super speedways"-Daytona and Talladega-and if officials don't make some changes in the race rules, their problems will continue.
Last weekend was the Daytona 500-one of the showcase races of the season-and again it was marred by accidents. Last year, Dale Earnhardt died in the final turn of the race when he hit the top wall in excess of 180 miles per hour. This year, the race had two major accidents, one involving 18 cars and another involving six.
The basic difference between super speedway races and the rest of the NASCAR slate is that on the super speedways, all cars must have restrictor plates. These plates limit the cars' top speed and they also restrict the rpm range of the engine. While it might seem that this would make races safer, it is not the case. When all of the cars are the same speed, the cars race in a pack. No one car can make a move away from the pack and the increased traffic always creates accidents.
No matter how many safety measures NASCAR implements, by requiring the restrictor plates, they endanger their drivers. NASCAR has enjoyed a boom in popularity in the last decade, shedding its image as a backwoods, redneck-dominated sport and entering the American mainstream. If crashes, driver injuries and deaths come to the forefront, NASCAR will sabotage all of its advances and will return to the back burner.