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After a long pitching and broadcasting career in the major leagues, Larry Dierker managed the 1997 Houston Astros to the National League Central Division title in his first season. His participation in this postseason was brief--the Astros were swept in three games by Atlanta in the first round--but he remained involved as The Sporting News' World Series analyst.

One of the best things that happened in this World Series was in the interview room, where Jimmy Leyland got something off his chest.

I could relate more than most people because I would have had the same feelings if the Astros had made the World Series. I might be more diplomatic because I'm just a rookie manager, but if I'm doing it as long as he is, I might say what I damn well please, too.

Leyland said he wanted to "puke" every time his Marlins and the Indians were expected to apologize for messing up the World Series by having the gall just to get there. They beat the best. He took baseball, the networks, the big-market press--everyone--to task for it. Good for him.

The reality of the game is that no matter what size market you're in, you can spend $80 million and become a big-market team overnight--if you have that money. The trouble is, there's no way to make that money back. Wayne Huizenga, the Marlins' owner, knew he'd lose a lot, even if they won it all.

If they want the New Yorks, the Chicagos and the Los Angeleses to be in the World Series all the time, then they should just have two divisions--the major leagues--and make small markets play in the minor leagues. Then the Braves could have played the Yankees in this World Series.

The whole big-market/small-market thing makes everyone mad, except for the people in the big markets. When you're in the Marlins' situation, you spend all this money to get there, and as I was asked by people in my TSN chat during the Series, `Did they buy their way in?' Well, partly they did but they also developed Edgar Renteria and Charles Johnson, two of the best players up the middle in the game today.

It's a very sore spot, when people in New York want to begrudge you what you do in your own market. Jimmy told them what he thought, and I can appreciate that.

As it turned out, it was a hell of a World Series after all, and it proved one thing: To win something like this, you have to keep improving as the year goes along. Sometimes the team that wins isn't the team with the best record, because the Indians were right there with us in the won-lost column.

You have guys like Jaret Wright for Cleveland and Antonio Alfonseca for Florida, who weren't on major league rosters earlier in the year, making their teams better. That's what we're trying to do in Houston--fine-tune, call up our guys, make a trade as the season goes along.

Wright was just exceptional in Game 7. He didn't throw five balls over the middle of the plate the whole game. The Marlins usually walk when you nibble, but he always managed to keep from getting in trouble with walks while not throwing the ball over the middle of the plate.

Mike Hargrove said he was counting on the "blissful ignorance of youth," and I absolutely agree. I almost pitched a perfect game when I had just turned 19. If that would have happened later in my career, I probably wouldn't have done that well because I would have said, "I won't have another chance." When you're young, you feel invulnerable. When you're older, you get desperate and wish for something, and the pressure might get to you.

In my case, it was a game against the Mets. It was my last start of the year in September, and I got to the ninth inning with it. I ended up pitching a two-hitter, and both of the hits hit fielders' gloves and they couldn't quite catch them. Joe Morgan, who called this Series for NBC, was one of the players who got a glove on the ball.

Overall, this will not go down in history as a pitching-rich World Series. I predicted last week that it would be a Series in which the hitting is far superior to the pitching and, for the most part, you saw that.

And Kevin Brown was symbolic of the Series.

He looked awful in both starts, and I knew they were going to kill him in Game 6. He was opening up, flattening out and he didn't have good control. In Game 6, he only threw maybe five or six pitches that had good downward movement. He was really flying open. The only other sinkerball pitcher I've seen who threw with an open body was Joaquin Andujar. Most sinkerball pitchers throw across their body--that's how I used to pitch. I know Brown always has that trail and falls over to the first-base line, but I don't know if he's always as open as he was in Game 6.

When he faces an American League team, Brown doesn't have that mystique he's had in the National League. You can be sure I will discuss all of these views when I talk with my Houston hitters before the first time we face him next season.

One other pitching thought I'm still just a bit mystified that Livan Hernandez gets people out. It's almost like he dares them to make outs. His breaking ball appears to roll, it doesn't look that sharp, but the hitters are just a little off. The Indians ended up getting six runs off of him in Game 5 and he walked eight, so it's not as if he's going to start the All-Star Game next year.

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