Picture above: OKC Dodger pitcher delivering a pitch in a game in OKC; Photo Credit; Fred Pahlke<\/p>\n
Commentary<\/p>\n
Minor league sports, especially baseball, is one level of\u00a0that game I detest.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why they take score quite frankly.\u00a0Why they even have wins and loses, especially for league standing purposes. Ok, I guess you need to have the individual statistics of the\u00a0ball players and the\u00a0pitchers need\u00a0win\/loss\u00a0records.\u00a0But the smell of \u201cwhy would you care about the score\u201d is valid as the AAA game is not for anything but to hone the skills of the players and get them ready to jump to the major leagues; or flame out and send the various player home to mother.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
This past season the Oklahoma City Dodgers, the AAA farm team of the Los Angeles Dodgers, made 334 player transactions through the season, then after the OKC version of Dodgers\u00a0won it\u2019s Division in the Pacific Coast League, the big club, as many major league teams do, called up almost the complete starting line-up just before a playoff series that would\u00a0determine the PCL\u2019s champion.\u00a0 Follow a team for five months and then break up the team\u2026.and\u00a0then care about the \u201cteam\u00a0concept?\u201d\u00a0 Not for me.\u00a0 Baseball must not be a team sport but more of a statistical mathematical sport.\u00a0 To top it off,\u00a0a week after the season the\u00a0Dodger organization fires the OKC manager and his right hand hitting coach \u201cto go a different direction?\u201d\u00a0 Well if you win your division the only way to\u00a0go is\u00a0down.\u00a0 Am I missing something here?<\/p>\n
The PCL championship, and regular season, and the total concept of minor league AAA baseball is awash in a system that I again would comment, \u201cwhy would I care?\u201d\u00a0 No, I don\u2019t attend minor league baseball as I don\u2019t have a need to sit in 90 degree heat most often, watching a game that is set up to feed ball players to the major leagues on their whim.\u00a0 Not that I am against these players getting the chance to play on a major league team, but at the expense of any true team concept\u00a0and league championship at the minor AAA level? No I pas.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need that \u201cthrill\u201d to watch the future stars of the Majors.\u00a0I especially do\u00a0not need to put my time, effort, and conscience thought in whether Oklahoma City might win a PCL title. They don\u2019t really care about the\u00a0minor league\u00a0city, they being the LA Dodgers.\u00a0The PCL title is\u00a0not significant, much less worthy of the\u00a0big clubs effort to need to win at this level.\u00a0 The Major League doesn\u2019t care and I don\u2019t either.\u00a0 I\u2019ll wait for the Thunder season to begin.<\/p>\n