national league baseball

Maybe, just maybe, there's some truth to Gary Carter's suspicions that he has been blackballed in baseball.

Two years ago, St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols, fresh off helping his team win the World Series, was upset that he finished runner-up in Most Valuable Player voting to Ryan Howard of Philadelphia, which finished second in the National League East."Someone who doesn't take his team to the playoffs doesn't deserve to win the MVP," said Pujols.

And just like the baseball season that wandered finally into folly and indifference, postseason awards confirm how dreary it all was.First of all, they were all wrong, all except Joe Maddon, Tampa Bay's manager, but that implies that the argument is worth making.

Where Manny Ramirez ends up is anyone's guess.

The worst part of sports is the way business butts in.And that reality hit Colorado Rockies fans in the face this week.Slugger Matt Holliday was dealt to Oakland.There is an initial emotional response from fans that feel cheated. The debate: Whether the Rockies are cheap or Holliday is greedy.The answer: neither.Both made business decisions.

Baseball players who inspire the imagination don't come along that often. The brawny slugger from Oklahoma did that in Colorado.That's why it's so hard to see Matt Holliday go. He became an indelible part of our collective memory late on the night of Oct. 1, 2007, bloodying his chin while sliding across home plate (or not) to put the Rockies into the postseason.

And a whippet shall lead them. ... At least they should, and area baseball fans should hope so too.

A year ago, the National League West was the talk of baseball and getting consideration as a division ready to dominate.So much for that idea.Now, the NL West is a division in transition, a division that needed the Dodgers' September surge to get one team to .500.

The Colorado Rockies expect to have an old face in a new lineup in 2009.First baseman Todd Helton, recovering from surgery to clean up a bulging disk in his lower back, has begun an offseason rehabilitation program that gives the Rockies reason to feel he will be full strength by spring training.

Baseball finally figured out the attention deficit generation. By accident, maybe, but hey, that's how some of the greatest discoveries happen.A three-inning game. One hour, 18 minutes. Barely longer than two episodes of Family Guy.