The Key To October (No Thanks To Tony LaRussa)

By Tom "Mr Star" Starita
Posted Friday, July 13, 2007

[DISCLAIMER: Note this column was written before rumors of a possible hamstring issue with Albert Pujols were reported and that he was unavailable to bat in the bottom of the 9th]

Pardon me for a moment while I continue to try and figure out the logic behind Tony LaRussa costing the National League home field.

I mean seriously….

CMON!

First off, first and second, two outs, down a run and with Albert Pujols sitting on the bench he lets Orlando Hudson hit??!!!?!! Miraculously it works out and now the game is SITTING right there, waiting for Albert to stroll up and line a base hit up the middle, scoring Lee from second base and winning the game.

Except Tony decided to let Aaron Rowand hit instead.

Here is the quote which explains Tony’s decision

"Let me ask you this. If we go to extra innings, who's going to be our player to move around and play? Can Dmitri [Young] move around and play? Or is Albert going to do that? Who's the most versatile guy not playing? It's Albert. It isn't even that tough. He'll figure it out sooner or later."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!?

Granted, I don’t have more than two thousand wins as a manager but there are two problems with his logic.

The first is Derek Lee is the runner on second base. While he’s no Jose Reyes, the man has speed. A base hit by Pujols and there is an EXCELLENT shot of Lee scoring the winning run.

The second problem is wondering who’s going to play in extra innings. How about you get there first! This would be like Jimmy Leyland leaving Putz in the game because he wanted to save K-Rod for the tenth! What that quote tells me is LaRussa had no faith in Pujols coming through and winning the All Star game. The man has seen every single at bat Pujols has ever taken yet suddenly Albert turned into David Eckstein! Albert Pujols, despite his slump this year is probably the best hitter in baseball. Aaron Rowand makes great catches and benefits from a little league park. Yet he chose Aaron to decide the game, who by the way received the grooviest meatball of a first pitch fastball maybe of all time, but chose to let K-Rod get ahead in the count. As a hitter, after seeing Francisco walk the ballpark, obviously going out of his mind, you KNOW he’s going to throw a fastball to get ahead, yet Aaron let the bat sit on his shoulders.

Unbelievable.

Still, I can’t get mad at Aaron Rowand. The guy is willing to break his face to win a ball game. No, the man who focus all my anger on this October (God willing) will be Tony LaRussa.

Of course knows if you told me right now the Mets would be playing Game 7 of the World Series in Boston I’d sign for it in a heartbeat!

As for the rest of this week’s column, I don’t want to do the standard, “giving out the midterm grades” column. Nor do I want to write a “Five Keys to the Second Half” column either. After reading me for a couple of months you already know I think we’re winning the division, so there isn’t any reason to give you yet another hard sell. Instead I’m going to tell you why the entire season depends on one player and one player only.

No it’s not Pedro, although he will be very important.

No it’s not Carlos Delgado, although I do believe his stats will be there in the end.

It’s not good ol’ Uncle Sandy himself, Aaron Heilman. But God knows he’ll be responsible for at least two ulcers before the season is done.

The answer is Carlos Beltran.

Carlos Beltran is the KEY to whatever success we attain this year. When Carlos is swinging a hot bat the lineup RAKES.

For example:

Reyes singles
Reyes steals second
Second place hitter moves him over
Beltran doubles, Reyes scores
Wright singles, Beltran scores
Delgado grounds to short, Wright out at second, Delgado out at first
Two runs, three hits, zero runners left on

As opposed to when Carlos is slumping:

Reyes singles
Reyes steals second
Second place hitter moves him over
Beltran strikes out, pops out
Wright walks
Delgado grounds out to second.
Zero runs, one hit, one walk, two men left on

When this team was scoring in April, it was somewhat due to Alou and Green stretching out the lineup, but mainly due to Carlos hitting 350, hitting home runs and generally keeping the pressure on the pitcher, which is exactly the player we thought we were getting back in January 2005.

I hate to be one of those fans who brings up money, because God knows I wouldn’t turn it down, but $117 million brings with it responsibility. I know he was hurt the first year, and his legs were hurting at the end of last year, as well as June of this year, but there comes a point in time when you simply have to get the job done. He is the best player right now on this team; it’s time to start showing why.

I firmly believe he will have a monster second half and you will see the lead begin to grow as the days come off the calendar. The man said before the year started he wanted to win the MVP award. Well, if history has taught me anything, it’s that players like Chipper Jones and Vlad Guerrero won the award based on how they carried their teams down the stretch.

Now go out there and bring up that trophy! You do that and you don’t have to be a Vegas bookie to see how there might be some more trophies to celebrate come late October.

If gambling was legal, Tom would have parlayed the National League and the over of 10 total runs. Fortunately for him and Tony LaRussa gambling ISN’T illegal. Otherwise Tom would be on a 36 hour bender. If you want to express your hatred for that animal saving manager, or agree with Tom’s view of the importance of Carlos and his mole email him at MrStarita@yahoo.com. Or, as always, discuss in the forums.