Can one World Series championship really turn around the fortune of a franchise? Can this one glorious year alter fans’ psyches and convince them that they’ve entered a new generation, one void of the heart-breaking moments that have characterized the Boston Red Sox fandom experience?
History has proven that a division crown or home-field advantage throughout the playoffs does not lead to a World Series Championship. Come October, the hottest team at the time will prevail, giving the wild card contenders in both leagues a huge edge.
While any trip to the World Series should be considered a success, the manner in which the Cardinals were dispatched proved that despite their tremendous performance in the regular season, they clearly were not the best team in baseball. This year, despite a similarly dominant regular season that is nearing a close (the Cardinals lead the majors in wins with 85 and lead their division by 14 games), why should the end result be any different from last year?
Cardinals fans: be grateful for what Mark McGwire gave you. He’s a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest home run hitters in baseball history. Major League baseball owners and players’ union representatives did not regard the steroid issue as a top priority throughout his playing days and allowed it to go on. Because of this, the blame should be placed squarely on them, the owners and players’ union.
The Washington University men’s tennis team placed fourth in the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship, hosted by Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., this past weekend.
Emory University took home first place, defeating the University of Rochester 7-0 in the final. The Bears defeated New York University (NYU) in the quarterfinals, lost to Rochester in the semifinals and then dropped a close 4-3 contest to the University of Chicago in the third-place game on Sunday.
Francis Field was the site of the Washington University Select Track and Field Meet last Saturday. Ten men’s and eight women’s squads competed in the event. Both Bears teams had successful performances, as the men’s team placed second and the women’s team captured third place.
The Washington University varsity baseball team took three of four games from Coe College this past weekend at Kelly Field, moving the team’s overall record to 16-4. On Friday, the team won 8-5 and 10-9, and on Saturday they won 13-6 but lost 6-1 in the final game, ending the Bears 12 game winning streak.
The Washington University baseball team has come out of the gate red-hot. Heading into their spring Florida trip, the team had compiled a 4-2 record, playing all six games at home. In Florida they competed in the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships and won five out of six games to win the UAA competition, their first outright title and third overall.
As the excitement of the NBA All-Star weekend comes to an end and with a couple of weeks to go before the start of March Madness, what better time to bring up the age-old debate of which basketball association is the superior: the NBA or the NCAA? It’s a hot topic, and you’re sure to find people who won’t hesitate to make a case for one side of the squabble.
Whether he intended to or not, Jose Canseco’s book entitled “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big,” released on Mon., Feb. 14, has greatly helped the game of baseball. In his book the former major league slugger claims that 80 percent of major league players have taken steroids and calls out former teammates, including Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez and St. Louis’s own Mark McGwire.
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