Sunday, August 28, 2011

"BIRD BRAINS"

(Headline on the back page of the NY Post)

The headline refers to the way the Baltimore Orioles handled the scheduling of the 5 games with the Yanks this weekend. Rumors and allegations are flying faster than columnists can keep up with them.
The Orioles claim they presented ALL of the possible options to the Yankees and they rejected them all. They finally submitted a plan which they say the Players Association and MLB approved.
The Yankees claim the Orioles didn't decide how to handle the scheduling until Friday night, while the game was in progress and refused to consider any option the Yanks suggested except for making up the lost game on Sept. 8th, the Yanks only true off-day till the end of the season. Meanwhile, Curtis Granderson, the Yanks player representative, says neither he nor the rest of the team ever approved playing on their last off-day.
It's not over and regardless of how it comes out, somebody is going to be very unhappy.

***YANKS AND ORIOLES IN A DOUBLE HEADER TODAY***
The Yanks will pitch Colon and Nova and a sweep would make up the game they lost yesterday. Boston is not playing today while Irene saunters through New England.

***WHAT'S WRONG WITH ICHIRO?***
This seems to be the big question for Mariner fans. For the first time, Ichiro will fail to hit .300, and will not get his customary 200 hits. Never fear, sports fans, Baseball Info Solutions has the answer. "Experts point to Ichiro's age, 37, as a reason for his ebb, but another explanation could be that Ichiro is the unfortunate recipient of superb fielding on the balls he puts in play." Yes, you can count on BIS to come up with a statistic to prove their point. This week's special formula is the Good Fielding Plays (GFPs). In simple terms, a GFP is a Web Gem, a play in which a fielder makes an extraordinary effort to record an unlikely out or to prevent an advancement of a runner. As with all these special stats, at one point, someone has to make an 'evaluation' or 'rate' some particular part of the play to put it in a category. The minute that happens, the statistic as proof holds no credence with me. Interesting? Sure. Proof positive? Sell me some swampland in Florida instead.

***WHAT WAS WRONG WITH JETER?***
See the comment above. Suddenly, he's hitting like the Derek Jeter of old. BIS hasn't gotten around to this one yet, but I'm here to help. His special stat: The OIBUWMKICSTBCA or, Once I Broke Up With Minka Kelly, I Could See The Ball Clearly Again. Gee, this is fun.

***A READER COMMENT***
Apparently I wasn't too clear on a comment I made about Nolan Ryan's pitching staff. The Stumpy one commented:
"I thought you were against the pitch count determining when a pitcher gets removed? I'm all for removing them when they are tired, but isn't that what he is getting at - remove the pitchers when they are tired? That would make it Ryan's manager that's the idiot for not noticing fatigue when he sees it. What you said makes it sound like you are for the pitch count staying around. I'm not a baseball aficionado, but even I see that.
I am against an arbitrary set pitch-count ceiling; pitchers should be removed when they become ineffective, not just when they reach a certain number. On a day-by-day basis, managers ARE responsible for recognizing fatigue. Over the course of a season, continued high pitch counts can result in pitchers running out of gas late in the season. This is what Nolan Ryan should have expected, and that was my point.


***THEY SAID IT***



A terrific comment by Bob Ryan on the Sports Reporters today when talking about Peyton Manning: "He's so good, he could make a 100-catch receiver out of a hatrack and a shovel."



"Tickets for the Nebraska University football game at Wyoming are going for $174. To put that in perspective, in parts of Wyoming you can buy a house for $274." -- Brad Dickson



"The last time the Yankees had three grand slams in one day: "The morning David Wells ate breakfast at Denny's." -- Seattle Times reader Bill Littlejohn

"Plans are underway to squeeze in another 6,600 seats behind Lambeau Field's south end zone in time for the 2013 season. Hey, they don't call them the Packers for nothing." -- Dwight Perry

CP-


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