This week’s Bitch-Slap-of-the-Week goes to the St. Louis Cardinals, Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox who were all swept right out of the MLB Playoffs.

Many sports fans believe the MLB season is too long so what better way to shorten the season than eliminating almost every team the first week of the playoffs.

The Cards bitch-slap was delivered compliments of the L.A. Dodgers.

After just three games of a five game NL playoff series, the Cards were sent home, tail between their legs, swept by the Dodgers with the final game being a 5-1 loss in front of a sold out silenced crowd at Busch Stadium.

The Cards line-up managed to cross the plate just six times in the entire series; a series that saw a few bounces go the Dodgers’ way.

Like a bitch-slap isn’t enough, in what should have been the final out for a Cardinal victory in Game 2, Cards left fielder Matt Holliday took a direct knock in the nuts when he misjudged a line shot that bounced off his junk, allowing the Dodgers to rally for a comeback win.

That play, reminiscent of Bill Buckner’s infamous miscue, should have been the final out of that contest and would have tied the series one game apiece before heading back to St. Louis.

Instead, the blunder set the stage for the Dodgers’ sweep. To make matters worse, Holliday struggled at the plate batting .167 with only one extra base hit.

Holliday and his Cards do get to share this week’s award with the two other teams who also got the broom; the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox.

That’s a lot of pain to endure . . . maybe Holliday is willing to pass around his ice pack to ease the pain.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax

LOS ANGELES – In his post-game interview St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright explained his team’s 3-2 loss in Game Two of the National League Division Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday’s error on a mishandled fly ball with two outs in the bottom of the ninth led to the Dodgers win and a commanding 2-0 lead over the Cardinals in the series.

And the reason he committed the error according to Wainwright was 50,000+ white towels being waved madly by LA Dodgers fans. The baseball is white and so were the towels. ‘Shouldn’t they be Dodger Blue towels?’ asked Wainwright.

What happened to the mantra about LA fans?

You know, the one that says they arrive late, leave early and want to be seen on camera more than watch the game.

During game one, the TBS announcer remarked that it was the first time he had seen Dodger Stadium full when a game was about to begin. In game two they were all there in the bottom of the ninth and were waving towels.

I’m afraid the reputation of LA fans will never be the same. 2009 will go down in baseball lore as the year that Los Angeles was accepted into the fan-club as a worthy member.

Even Mary Hart of “Entertainment Tonight” fame, with seats directly behind home plate, was standing at the end of the game. Her companion for the game, towel in hand was moving it from side to side.

Is it possible that the rap on LA fans has been wrong or just a gross exaggeration that Mid-Westerners and East Coast folks like to repeat, despite what the truth may be?

Truly a sign of the impending apocalypse.

Los Angeles – Manny Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras has made it clear that the Dodgers’ offer (he still won’t confirm the details) wasn’t sufficient. The length of the proposed contract is too short for Boras’ taste. To buttress his negotiating position that age shouldn’t matter in the case of a hitter like Manny, Boras offered this:

“There is evidence of major league teams giving a player that’s older a contract for five years.”

Of course, that refers to the contract Barry Bonds signed when he was 37. And look how well that worked out for the San Francisco Giants, right? They got the revenue from his chase for the record books as he passed Hank Aaron on the career home run record and were able to dump him immediately thereafter when his the contract expired.

Ned Colletti, the Dodgers GM, was quoted yesterday as warning Boras that the Dodgers offer, whatever it is, would not be on the table forever. I’m sure Scott is shaking in his boots. Do you think he wears boots?

In Southern California, sports talk radio has been ablaze with talk about the Dodgers offer to Manny Ramirez and if it will fly with his agent Scott Boras.

Boras threw out the fishing line at season’s end with the announcement that the bidding would start at $25,000,000 for a multi-year deal of four years or more. The Dodgers have a short and exclusive period to see if they want to bite on what Boras is dangling on that line and Wednesday afternoon the team released a cryptic statement about an offer.

It was described by the Dodgers as “the highest average annual value in the history of the franchise and the second-highest average annual value in baseball”.

In other words, the offer was less than what A Rod makes and more than Johan Santana’s annual haul. Neither Dodgers’ GM Ned Colletti nor Scott Boras was willing to be specific about the dollar amount or the length of the deal on the table.

Notice the use of the words, “annual average”. Obviously this is a multi-tiered compensation package that either front-loads or back-loads some of the money and might include various bonuses. As I wrote yesterday, the looming new tax bite on the top income earners has agents trying to get clubs to shell out bonus money prior to year’s end.

The Dodgers are being very tight lipped about it as is Boras. No one else can intervene with an official offer until fifteen days after the final game of the World Series was played. But you have to presume that Boras was mixing and mingling with club officials and owners during the meeting held this week here in So Cal and knowing winks and nods were presumably exchanged. Whether they turn into definitive offers remains to be seen.

What is certain is that Dodger fans are saying their prayers that their team lands the biggest fish they’ve had in their pond for a couple of decades.

The Windy City was already looking ahead at potential dates to schedule a victory parade in case this would be the year for the Chicago Cubs.

With a National League best, 97-64 record, the Cubbies were in position to rescue Steve Bartman’s reputation by bringing a World Series title back to Chicago . . .but Joe Torre and the L.A. Dodgers had a different idea.

Their plan included embarrassing and bitch-slapping the listless Cubs, sending them packing after a dominating three-game sweep. The series was never a contest with the Dodgers outscoring the lethargic Cubs 20-6.

The only “curse” this organization has, is not knowing how to show up for the playoffs, and until they do, they will continue to add to their 100 year streak without the victory parade.

The Cubs are 0-9 in their last nine playoff games and have not had a post-season victory since 2003, but Bartman, who may be hiding in a remote cave in Afghanistan with Bin Laden, certainly cannot be blamed for this one.

This was more than a standard spank, this was a classic bitch-slap.

Expectations were sky high and the team decided not to show up for the entire series and were dominated. Cubbies, you are the runaway winner of the Sports Climax Bitch-Slap-of-the-Week.

Copyright ©2008 Sports Climax