Online Critique

For my online critique I read an article from espn.com. The article was on rivalries in baseball. For those of us who watch baseball we already know about the Dodgers-Giants, or Cubs-Cardinals. There is a new rivalry erupting in baseball. The Phillies and Mets are becoming bitter with each other and 2008 looks to be promising for both teams. All it took was Carlos Beltran announcing Saturday in Port St. Lucie that his team was the team to beat. Before you knew it Phillies-Mets had instantly zoomed right to the top of the National League rivalry charts. "It's amazing how fast this has become such a great rivalry," said Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino on Sunday. "First, Jimmy makes his statement. Now Carlos is making his statement. It's becoming like, `Who's going to say something next?'" Rivalries play a big part in sports. They can bring in bigger crowds and always have more energy than a regular season game. Teams play to a higher potential because it's the one team they can't lose to. I know when I played in a rival game in high school or even in baseball at ISU, when we played a rival team the games were more intense and I played 100% harder than a normal game. I thought this was a well written article. I know baseball isn't the most exciting sport to watch so when you get a great rivalry it makes the game worth while.