Monday, August 08, 2011

I DON'T KNOW WHICH WAS WORSE...

...Rivera blowing the save and the Yanks losing in 10 innings, or having to listen to 'Booby' Valentine for over 4 hours. The Sox won, and maybe they should have, since we've been told from day one how they may be the best team in baseball. Yankee fan or Red Sox fan it doesn't matter - watching these teams go up against one another is like watching two heavyweights slug it out with each other for 10 rounds.
Garcia pitched with guile, cunning and the guts of a 2nd story man and sent a number of Red Sox hitters walking back to the dugout shaking their head. Beckett was more conventional, overpowering Yankee batters with fast balls and off-speed stuff. You had to marvel at both. The Sox may ultimately win out, but they have to know the Yanks won't go down easily.

I wonder if ESPN will ever find a trio of announcers that can competently analyze the game and do play-by-play. Orel Hershiser could put John Flaherty to sleep and who is Dan Shulman? As far is Booby goes, I haven't heard such drivel since Joe Morgan was making our ears bleed last year. I think Valentine believes his job is to disagree with every decision that is made on the field: "Did you see what they did here? That's just wrong." Thanks for that insight, Booby. Then he explains HIS way of doing things, and that's usually thoughtless at best, and silly any way you look at it. Case in point: In the bottom of the ninth, with no outs, man on second and down a run, the obvious play is to have the batter bunt. When Ellsbury does bunt, and a lousy one at that, Rivera is quickly off the mound to field it. He looks toward third, but no one is there, so he goes to first. Valentine couldn't wait to say that Nunez was "out of position" and "there was no reason for him to be in that close." Yeah, right. He was supposed to stay at third and HOPE that the bunt is terrible and right at Rivera instead of down the line, like it's supposed to be. The ONLY way you try for the man in that situation, is to use the 'wheel play,' with the third baseman charging and the shortstop covering third. Now if Valentine had said that, and criticized the Yanks for not doing that, he'd have a point. But no, he had to point out what HE thought was a mistake. Give him credit, though, he tried to anticipate moves both teams might try or the type of pitch that would be thrown. He was usually wrong, of course, but that helped because you could count on that.

It was irritating to watch Sox lefty, Franklin Morales, balk every time he threw to first. The Yanks complained, uselessly, of course, and the announcers picked up on that, but they refused to take a stand on the move. Was it a balk or not? they never said. Their response was to say here's the rule, and explain it in detail. Hershiser went on about drawing a line from the rubber to the running box down the foul line and how the pitcher has to step inside that line to meet the 45 degrees that is allowed. Interesting, but totally wrong. The rule actually says the pitcher has to step TOWARDS first base, not within 45 degrees. Also, once the lefty's right leg goes behind his left leg when starting his motion, he HAS to throw to the plate. They never mentioned that, and Morales violated that one, too.

I loved how Valentine waxed on about how Beckett took 30-35 seconds between pitches and that the umpires never enforced the 12 second rule. "Either enforce it or eliminate the rule," he said. This from a guy who snuck back into the dugout wearing a fake mustache when he was a manager after being thrown out by the umpire. Should we eliminate that rule too, Valentine?

I read this in Dwight Perry's column last night.
"In Friday's 1-0 loss to the Angels, the Mariners had a runner picked off first, another caught trying to steal second and yet another nabbed rounding third too far. Just one foolhardy tag at home, and the M's would've gotten picked for the cycle."
What made this interesting to me, was that this once happened to me exactly as described. Playing in a fast-pitch soft ball game, I made outs at 1st, 2nd and 3rd all in one game, earning me the derisive nickname of "Flash." Thanks for bringing back a painful memory, Dwight.

CP-

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