Back at the end of March, I announced I would not be following the 2023 MLB season and have mostly kept my word. If a game was on TV during my visits to Dad in New York, I would make a point of sitting on the chair facing away from the TV. If I happen to be a restaurant or bar and I see a game is on TV, my attention will be directed elsewhere.
However, I do occasionally check the standings and have paid attention to a few stories. In recent days, I have acknowledged the perfect game of New York Yankees pitcher Domingo German as well as yesterday's combined no-hitter by three Detroit Tigers pitchers. In the case of the latter story, most of my focus was on the fact more than half of the 20 combined no-hitters thrown in MLB history have happened since 2012. I made a point of mentioning Texas Rangers pitcher Jacob de Grom's season ending Tommy John surgery only because I had a feeling something like that would happen when he signed with them last December.
The only other time I have commented on the 2023 MLB season was after the Pittsburgh Pirates went 20-9 in April. The Bucs have since fallen back to Earth having gone 21-40 since including a 10-game losing streak between June 13-22.
However, a new Cinderella story has emerged in the NL Central and it is the Cincinnati Reds. The glass slipper has been Dominican born rookie infielder Elly De La Cruz. Prior to his MLB debut on June 6th, the Reds were 27-33. Since De La Cruz joined the club, the Reds have gone 24-8 and now sit atop the NL Central by a game over the Milwaukee Brewers. Just yesterday, De La Cruz stole second, third and home in the stretch of two pitches against their NL Central rival Brewers becoming the first MLB player to collect 40 hits and 15 steals in his first 30 MLB games.
While there is a lot of baseball to go, it is a nice reversal of fortune for the Reds who lost 100 games last year especially in view of a team president who said the club had no chance to reach the post-season this year. De La Cruz might just make Phil Castellini eat his words.
Another pleasant development in 2023 have been the Arizona Diamondbacks. Two years removed from a 110-loss season, the team stuck with manager Torey Lovullo and the D'Backs are tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in the NL West at the All-Star Break. That would be the same Dodgers team which has won 9 of the last 10 NL West division titles.
Things have been far less pleasant for the New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Padres in 2023. All three NL teams were in the post-season a year ago have been underachieving. The Mets are somehow losing despite having both Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer in their starting rotation. The Padres are somehow losing despite having both Manny Machado and Juan Soto in the heart of their order. The Cardinals are at the risk of having their first last place finish since 1990 and only their second last place finish since 1918. Alas Willson Contreras is no Yadier Molina.
As for the AL, I feel sorry for the Boston Red Sox. They are in last place in the AL East. Not because they are a bad team by any means. They are a respectable 48-43 finishing the half with 5 straight wins and victories in 8 of their last 10 games. It's just there in MLB's best division. Both the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles (another team which lost 100 plus games two years ago) have winning percentages above .600. And if the season were to end today, the Toronto Blue Jays would also go to the postseason leaving both the Red Sox and Yankees on the outside looking in.
Let me put it another way. If the Red Sox were in the AL Central, they would lead the Cleveland Guardians by 2.5 games. As it stands, the Guardians lead MLB's weakest division with a .500 record, a 1/2 game ahead of the Minnesota Twins. The Los Angeles Angels have an identical record to the Twins, but they are in the AL West 7 games behind the Texas Rangers. Although Shohei Ohtani will probably win his second AL MVP in three years, the Angels don't have to show for it as they have lost 9 of their last 10 games going into the All-Star Break. Yet the Guardians or Twins will make the postseason while both the Angels and Red Sox are unlikely to play baseball this October.
But the Red Sox could have it much worse. They could be in the shoes of the Oakland A's and Kansas City Royals who go into the All-Star Break, 25-67 and 26-65, respectively. While the A's and Royals might not eclipse the futility of the 1962 New York Mets who went 40-120 in their inaugural season, they will be very lucky to win 50 games in 2023. While we have seen other teams rebound from 100 plus loss seasons very swiftly, the A's will be in baseball purgatory until they start playing baseball in Las Vegas.
As for the 2023 All-Star Game, it is being hosted in Seattle for the first time since 2001. With interleague play taking place every day, the midsummer classic has lost its luster as it is now overshadowed by the HR Derby.
There are only two things which would interest me from the 2023 All-Star Game. First, would be if the NL won because they haven't since 2012. Second, would be if someone hit a grand slam HR during the game. It has only been done once and that was 40 years ago when Red Sox legend Fred Lynn, by this time wearing a California Angels uniform, took San Francisco Giants pitcher Attlee Hammaker deep. My maternal grandparents, who were looking after us that summer while my parents were in Europe, promptly sent us to bed.
When I met Fred Lynn at an autograph session in Boston in 2016, I told him that story. Lynn told me that when he and Hammaker became teammates with the 1990 San Diego Padres that Hammaker's wife refused to speak with him because her husband's career never quite recovered from surrendering that homerun.
That anecdote as well as my meeting Rollie Fingers a decade ago at the 2013 All-Star Game festivities at the Javits Center in New York (the year the game was hosted by the Mets at Citi Field) and exchanging notes on our mustaches will mean a great deal more to me than virtually everything going on in MLB in 2023. Although I hope for nice things for teams like the Cincinnati Reds, Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers, those nice things will happen with ghost runners, large bases, pitch clocks and a universal DH. That just isn't baseball to me.
But the fact is this is baseball in 2023. So long as this fact is unchanged, I will not be a fan of baseball even if I do check in to see what is going on from time to time.
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