The Perfect Game

Baseball is the only business in America where the owners keep telling the consumers their product is lousy, all in the hope of paying their best workers $15 million a year instead of $18 million. In the middle of last summer's labor strife, Commissioner Bud Selig whined about how teams needed to be contracted, how various franchises were on the verge of defaulting on their payrolls and how the national pastime was on its last legs.

Here's a bulletin for Bud: Baseball is better than it's ever been. Last year's World Series was as good as it gets--the Angels and the Giants entered the season as long shots and ended it with seven unforgettable games. And this summer promises more Cinderella teams, more 100-mph fastballs turned into 500-foot homers, more players with outsize talent and personalities to match. These are baseball's good old days. Need further proof? Here are eight reasons why there's never been a better time to watch a baseball game.

[1] The game is tougher. Forget those purists who speak in hushed tones about the greatness of Babe Ruth. We're here to remind you that Old Beer Gut never played a night game or faced a player of color. When Sammy Sosa hits 292 homers in five years and Pedro Martinez wins his fourth ERA title in six, they're doing it under the toughest conditions ever.

[2] Anyone can win. Let's talk competitive balance. Can you say World Champion Anaheim Angels? Sure, the Yankees are virtual locks for the postseason, and a few more teams have no hope--like the dumb Kansas City Royals and dumber Milwaukee Brewers. But by substituting smarts for cash, teams like the Twins won their divisions last year. And by showing that even small-town guys can dream big, last season's World Series did nothing less than save the sport.

[3] Mr. Barry Bonds. Like him or loathe him, you cannot deny his greatness. No one, not Ted Williams, not Mickey Mantle, ever tormented pitchers the way that Bonds does. All right, he's an asshole--who cares?

[4] The big brain factor. The real reason the level of the game is so high today is that everyone is smarter (except the Royals and the Brewsters). Pitchers download info on laptops to learn which batters will bite on a first slide; hitting coaches pore over miles of video. The upshot of this data deluge is baseball Darwinism. Got a hole in your game? Everyone knows it by the end of the week.

[5] The arms race. Sure, we live in a hitter's age, but has there ever been a more remarkable pair of pitchers than Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez? Never in the history of baseball have you seen two such dominating hurlers at their peak at the same time.

[6] Attitude. After a decade of stars about as charismatic as Dick Cheney, baseball is blessed with a new generation of real guys. If Giambi, Zito or Dempster learned their clichés on a bus in the minors, they forgot them by the end of their first big-league bender.

[7] The peace process. Every true baseball fan knows that the sport's biggest rivalry is the one between the owners and the Player's Union. But a new collective bargaining agreement means you can forget about luxury tax thresholds and contraction for at least another four years.

[8] Drama worthy of Tolstoy. Admit it: five run lead, seventh inning, sixth game--you were ready to turn off the TV. Aren't you glad you didn't? Scott Spiezio's seventh-inning homer in the sixth game of the World Series may have been the greatest clutch hit in history. Like the Diamondbacks the year before, the Angels took advantage of one of the perfect little loopholes in baseball: Just get one more hit, and you can't lose.

Playboy's Picks

NL East:Atlanta Braves

NL Central:Houston Astros

NL West:Arizona Diamondbacks

NL Wild Card:New York Mets

AL East:New York Yankees

AL Central:Chicago White Sox

AL West:Oakland A's

AL Wild Card:Boston Red Sox

NL Champion:Arizona Diamondbacks

AL Champion:Oakland A's

World ChampsOakland A's

[Five Ways] We can Improve it

the slugger

Jason Giambi first baseman/New York Yankees

Playboy: Who are the teams to watch in the American League?

Giambi: I think the pitchers for the A's are going to keep getting better. That's the scary part. And the Angels are going to be tough again.

Playboy: What happened against the Angels last year?

Giambi: I think everybody was just shell-shocked. Nobody in a million years thought that would happen, especially given the number of runs we scored. They didn't quit. We were up by five and the next minute we were down by three. Game, set and match.

Playboy: What's it like being a Yankee?

Giambi: The thing that throws you off is you go to Baltimore and you've got 200 people in the hotel lobby at two o'clock in the morning waiting for you to walk in. you're like a fucking rock star.

Playboy: How tough was it to cut your hair and shave your goatee?

Giambi: That was the hard part to suck up. I was used to not having any rules in Oakland. These are Steinbrenner's rules. Trust me, I'd rather have the goatee and the long hair.

Playboy: Is the Yankee clubhouse as dull as if seems?

Giambi: It's a lot more fun than people think. In New York City you have more media than players. So guys just know where to hide and hang out and have fun.

Playboy: What did you do with the motorcycle?

Giambi: My bike is at my parents' house. I didn't want to take it to New York and get run over by a fucking cabble.

Playboy: Who is your favorite superhero?

Giambi: Superman. He's got it all figured out. He's got the X-ray vision. He can fly. He's strong and good-looking. He's got the whole package.

Playboy: Does your superhuman eyesight enable you to find girls in the stands?

Giambi: That's a skill I share with everybody in the big leagues.