Some Things Just Stand Out

Wednesday night was a great night for sports watching. Game one of the World Series was played and as it ended the Rockets' second NBA game was heading into the stretch.

While watching both several thoughts came to my mind. There are lots of good things about being a "veteran" sportscaster. One thing is that rarely does anything new happen. History repeats itself so many times in life and sports it is amazing.

From the baseball game the simplicity of what it takes to win again showed. Pitchers who throw strikes and get ahead in counts win. Hitters who can work counts in their favor and swing at strikes succeed. Teams with experience and success on the big stage show it.

All of that happened in the Philadelphia-New York series opener. Both pitchers were solid. Cliff Lee was other worldly especially when considering the Yankee lineup he was facing.

Not much wrong with CC Sabathia either, minus the two solo homers he gave up to Chase Utley. Of course, Utley was the type of hitter mentioned two paragraphs earlier. He was very calm and confident at the plate. He knew what he was looking for. And when he saw the right Sabathia fast ball he hit it.

I don't want to make it sound too simple. A hitter can't miss or miss hit that pitch he is waiting for or the simplicity of baseball gets more complicated. Utley didn't miss.

What was the difference in game one? My feeling it was the fact that most of the Phillies had been there and done that before. They ARE after all the defending World Champs. The 40 New York World Series appearances and 26 titles don't mean a thing in 2009. Not many of these Yankees have played on a big winner.

Remember the last time a National League team won successive World Series? It was the Reds in 1975 and 1976. That second title was against the Yankees--in four straight.

The Phillies won't likely win four straight. They might not even with the Series. But in game one they showed they were not to be cowed by the mighty Yankees. Neither the Twins nor Angels who did not play up to the level they showed during the regular season could say that.

You DID notice that both starting pitchers in game one had been teammates on the Cleveland Indians? The fact that the Indians could not afford to keep either CC Sabathia or Cliff Lee points up to the financial inequities in baseball. Of course, Yankees Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixiera were too pricey for the Texas Rangers, too.

The other side of this is signing one's own young players to long term contracts--before they have proven their long term worth. It is a problem baseball has struggled with for the last 30 years. There is no single answer under the current conditions. Building a solid farm system with replacements with major league skill available is the key. That is what Cleveland and Texas are both trying to do. It is what the Astros hope to accomplish as well.

ROCKETS ROLL
The Rockets are intriguing. I had not really followed them much during the exhibition season. Being involved in sports as long as I have I learned long ago there is no way to adequately evalutate a TEAM from exhibitions. Sometimes watching individual players can be beneficial. But team results in exhibitions just don't matter.

That is why I have watched the bulk of both Rocket games to open the season. The World Series cut into my early game viewing on Wednesday, but it saw the stretch and parts of the early game during inning breaks.

This team doesn't automatically have to be a bottom feeder, but it will require more daily effort than most NBA players can physically hold up to. The 2009-10 Rockets can be a .500 team if they can play at peak efficiency and as a team every single night.

For many years I was an NBA play by play announcer and while the players have changed the keys to success in basketball like baseball are really very simple and basic. Play hard on both ends of the court. Box out, rebound, get as many early baskets as possible and play as a team on both ends. Those tenets will work with any team. Teams with great talent that follow them win titles. Teams will lesser talent, but play that way will still win a lot of games.

The Rockets fall into the latter category. Right now Rick Adelman is actually in a great coaching situation. He does not have any "superstars" on the court that he must coddle or try not to upset. If any of his players aren't getting the job done he can make changes. And he seems to have enough bench in some spots being interchangeable is very possible.

Can this group of undersized Rockets hold up to the grind and physically be able to hold up after facing the league's cream of the crop? That is the biggest question. However, I think the fans will like watching this team. I suspect they will play very hard and that is really what any fan who plunks down his dollars wants to see.