Monday, September 14, 2020

MAYBE I SEE THINGS DIFFERENTLY...

I think I watch baseball a little differently than most people. I watch the little things: What's the third base coach signaling, is the batter guessing or just overpowered, does the umpire consistently miss a certain pitch location, etc. I sometimes use these little clues to make predictions which seem to work out. 

Paying attention to the Yankee/Mets series this weekend, I noticed two things which the YES broadcast team missed. 

1) In the first game of last Sunday's doubleheader,the Yankees scored on a great slide by Urshala. The YES broadcasters made a big issue out of it (which they should have), but missed the fact that the umpire came around the play and positioned himself perfectly to make the correct call. If he hadn't moved, he might have made a wrong call and it might have been overturned. The broadcasters never mentioned it.

2) Also in that game, Thairo Estrada almost got thrown out at third in the 7th during the NY rally that ultimately tied the game. Well, the YES team kept railing that Estrada made a BIG mistake trying to take third with two outs and the Yanks trailing by three runs. He could have cost them the game. Instead,  it was the third base coach, Phil Nevins, who screwed up. The play was behind the runner. In that situation, the runner has to rely on the coach to tell him to go or stay. Nevins never gave him any signal. He just stood there the whole time with his hands at his side. Neither "expert" (Cone and O'Neill)ever mentioned it.

Speaking of Thairo Etrada, what is the story with the Yankee's fascination with him? He's hitting a whopping .182 with an on-base percentage of .250. With Urshala out, it's a perfect opportunity to give Andujar some at bats. He's already proven he can hit and has just started to break out. It's hard to drive in runs from the bench. Wake up Aaron Boone.

Speaking of Boone, I love whenever a reporter asks about a player who is slumping, Boone's response is, "Oh, he's close. He's ready to go on a run."  No, he's not. He's been saying that about Sanchez for 10 days and we're still waiting for him to start. .

Yankee beat writer, Ken Davidoff, said in his column yesterday that basically the Yankees were lucky to win the game because they made three errors and failed to hit with men on base. I believe Davidoff does not like the Yanks because he is very negative in his columns. The Yanks are human; they will make errors from time to time. They are facing major league pitchers who will occasionally get it right and then they will overpower hitters. Good teams win games they probably shouldn't. Go cover the Mets, Ken, they're used to bad press.

 I see, the Twins Sergio Romo was suspended a game because he got into a long distance argument with the Indians Franciso Lindor. No punches thrown and nobody got thrown at, just words. But Lindor and Romo both got fined and Romo suspended. Hey Commissioner Rob Manfred: what happened to "Let the kids play?"

Sad note: Pablo "The Panda" Sandoval was released by the San Francisco Giants. It's the end of an era. In his day, Pablo was very good around the plate - both home plate and the dinner plate.

Is anybody else annoyed with Michael Kay's catch-phrase "Free baseball?" 

I'm in Rochester, NY. This is Buffalo Bills country. If the COVID-19 actually shuts down pro football this week, Buffalo could actually finish the season undefeated. And no champagne for the Miami Dolphins!

***THEY SAID IT***

"Saturday, CBS presented a WNBA game, Who Knows? vs. Ya Got Me. The only things on the screen to identify the teams were unfamiliar, small team logos. After roughly 20 minutes, we learned it was Dallas vs. Indianapolis."  -- Phil Mushnick

"Okay, who predicted on Sept 8 that SF Giants would have a better record than Yankees? Now all you liars put your hands down."  -- Janice Hough

"On the news tonight all they talked about were boycotts, protests, riots, violence, dissension, disease, lawsuits and court cases. And that was just the sportscast"  -- Brad Dickson

"That 6½-foot asteroid hurtling our way has only a 0.41% chance of striking Earth, astronomers say. Or, to put it in terms a baseball fan can understand, there’s a 99.59% chance that Angel Hernandez would call it a strike."  -- Dwight Perry

"The Red Sox boast one of the AL’s worst records.They are irrelevant, in other words. Somebody remind ESPN’s programming department."  -- Bob Molinaro [Note: Sunday, the Red Sox play the Yankees. Any takers on this being the ESPN Game Of The Week? -Picasner]

"The 2020 NFL season kicks off tonight. I'm really looking forward to the next 12 days until the 2020 NFL season ends."  -- Brad Dickson

"If the Blue Jays DO somehow win the AL pennant or even the World Series, do they raise the flag in Toronto or Buffalo?"  -- Janice Hough

"The Packers had a record three punts blocked — two for touchdowns — in their 1975 season opener. This is harder to do than building something from IKEA.”  -- Mike Hart, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

 "Sorry Houston Texans: 20 points wasn't enough to beat the Chiefs on Thursday Night. And it wouldn't have been enough to beat the Atlanta Braves, who scored 29 on Wednesday."  -- RJ Currie

"Over 100 brides in Belgrade recently donned wedding dresses and running shoes in a race for a free wedding. Call me a bitter divorcĂ©, but in marriage there's always a price to pay."  -- RJ Currie

Chad Picasner

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