Baseball 2024

[moecurlythanu]

Instant classic in Cleveland. When the 2 Yankee home runs left the bat, I didn't think they had enough to get out. That line drive HR by Judge probably couldn't have been hit out by any other player in the league. Maybe Ohtani. What a freakish talent. I really thought it (and the series) was over at that point. The Guardians got their regular season winning MO, so I thought they were golden, but after the back-to-backs, I resigned myself to thinking that they were just beaten by better players/better team. When they got Lane Thomas at the trading deadline, everybody shrugged, and he struggled mightily for the first month. The brain dead Guardians fans on Facebook (their name is Legion, for they are many) ripped the front office mercilessly for acquiring him. Well, for the last month of the season and the playoffs, it looks like a masterstroke. They were down to their last out. Thomas doubles, and they pinch hit Big Christmas. I knew the strategy at play, I just thought the odds were slim. Noel is (at this point) a Dave Kingman type player. It's a clout or an out. No plate discipline, not sure if it's judgement or vision, etc. Anyway, he jacks a no doubter. The recent add to the roster gets them through the top of the 10th, with the aid of an incredible play by Jimenez that I thought pulled Naylor off the bag in real time. Bottom 10, they get a man into scoring position, and I'm thinking, "all this effort to get this guy into scoring position. What if Fry just hits a home run. He's very capable." <Crack> Amazing. As much as I enjoyed the last 2 games of the Detroit series, this was just incredible. Hope we get last year's Gavin Williams tomorrow instead of this year's.

At the start of the 10th, there was no ghost runner on 2nd. Same for the bottom of the inning, obviously. When you change the rules based on circumstance (It's the ALCS,) it's a tacit admission that your rule is a fucking joke! Wake up, MLB!

[ronmac]

Quite a game in Cleveland tonight, Kudos to the Guardians for coming back after their closer gave up back-to-back HRs to Judge and Stanton in the 8th. Yanks were stuck using Cardiac Clay after their own closer game up a two-run shot in the bottom of the 9th to send it to extra innings. Clay returned to his classic form and gave up a two-run shot of his own in the bottom of the 10th for the loss.

All that being said, this is the third game out of three with TERRIBLE ball-and-strike calling behind the plate. Just terrible.

[Dave (in MA)]

your rule is a fucking joke!

+1, and I didn't even watch.

[Shadow]

If Cleveland didn't pull their pitcher none of this would have even happened. Orioles do the same thing.

[ronmac]

If Cleveland didn't pull their pitcher none of this would have even happened. Orioles do the same thing.

So, you're suggesting they should have kept their starter going into the 8th inning and avoided their big 4 bullpen? That's quite a bold claim.

[Shadow]

So, you're suggesting they should have kept their starter going into the 8th inning and avoided their big 4 bullpen? That's quite a bold claim.

They should have left in Gaddis.

[ronmac]

They should have left in Gaddis.

They should have not gone to arguably the best closer in baseball with a 0.66 ERA up by two runs? LOL! If that isn't the baseball version of Monday morning quarterbacking, I don't know what is! LOL!

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

^^ Keep dreaming. It's all about revenue these days.

Don't be $illy. Everybody knows that prof€$$iona£ $port$ £€agu€$ are ¢omp£€t£¥ dedi¢at€d to th€ ab$olut€ purit¥ of th€ gam€ and th€ saf€t¥ and se¢urit¥ of th€ pla€r$ and audi€n¢€ m€mb€r$.

* * * * * *

And as for the "ghost runner." I understand that this was part of the same attempt to make the games faster and more exciting as the pitch clock.

If they *really* want the game to be more exciting, they should dump the rules about doping. That'll do it, uh huh.

[Shadow]

They should have not gone to arguably the best closer in baseball with a 0.66 ERA up by two runs? LOL! If that isn't the baseball version of Monday morning quarterbacking, I don't know what is! LOL!

The guy got two outs, I think that was pretty good instead of bringing in someone cold to pitch to King Kong and Mighty Joe Young.

[spellbound]

And as for the "ghost runner." I understand that this was part of the same attempt to make the games faster and more exciting as the pitch clock.

I had never seen the pitch clock before this playoff series. If it was happening during the season, I didn't notice because they almost never televise baseball games on broadcast TV. I don't think I've see a ghost runner, but maybe that's the point. Why do they want to make games faster? Have you seen what else is on TV? I'll take a slow game over that crap any day.

And please, please stop with the commercials while the game is going on. There's plenty of breaks in baseball: between half innings, when they have a pitcher change, the seventh inning snooze, etc. Use those. Let us watch the game when the game is on.

[Poisoned Youth]

I had never seen the pitch clock before this playoff series. If it was happening during the season, I didn't notice because they almost never televise baseball games on broadcast TV. I don't think I've see a ghost runner, but maybe that's the point. Why do they want to make games faster? Have you seen what else is on TV? I'll take a slow game over that crap any day.

And please, please stop with the commercials while the game is going on. There's plenty of breaks in baseball: between half innings, when they have a pitcher change, the seventh inning snooze, etc. Use those. Let us watch the game when the game is on.

I don't really mind most of the rules. I like the pitch clock. I had thought, however, they would remove the ghost runner from playoff games.

And notice you don't hear anyone whining this year about the (p)layoff format (hint: because the larger market teams/higher seeds made it this far).

And I hate to be cynical (okay, I like being cynical), but the commercial/ad fatigue is fucking real. I mean it's ubiquitous no matter what you do, but I noticed in the playoffs how the inning breaks seemed to be 3 minutes long. Am I wrong about this? I mean, 1 minute x a minimum of 16 breaks adds 16 minutes to the game time. That's surely going to offset any gains from the pitch clock. Then all these "30 second" in-game breaks add salt to the wound. I think the most used button on my remote is MUTE.

[ronmac]

^^ Like I stated, revenue rules everything.

[MudShark22]

Inning breaks are longer in the post season

Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit.

[MudShark22]

520pm EST
I'm in my basement / studio sitting in my seats from Shea Stadium (1st base lower level) with Mr. Met in the other seat watching the game.

If this is it, it's been a good season.

Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit.

[Vic2012]

Go Mets!!!!

[ronmac]

Go Mets!!!!

+1

[moecurlythanu]

Death inspires me like a long inning break.

[headcrash]

520pm EST
I'm in my basement / studio sitting in my seats from Shea Stadium (1st base lower level) with Mr. Met in the other seat watching the game.

If this is it, it's been a good season.

Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit.

Nice! My first Met game we sat in the 1st base field boxes, July 8 1969, a come from behind win against the Cubs with 3 runs in the bottom of the ninth. You could feel the stadium literally rocking beneath your feet. Mets went 54-26 after that on the way to their first championship. I always felt that game was the turning point of the season.

[ronmac]

I never saw the mets play at Shea, but I saw the Yankees there for two seasons while Yankee Stadium was being renovated.

I remember the upper deck being so steep that it looked like a tumble would send you to a quick and violent death.

Another crazy game in Cleveland last night. It looks like it's coming down to which team and manager can fuck up the least.

Clase's heavy load of innings seems to have taken its toll. They had four relievers with 80 or more appearances.

[MudShark22]

I never saw the mets play at Shea, but I saw the Yankees there for two seasons while Yankee Stadium was being renovated.

I remember the upper deck being so steep that it looked like a tumble would send you to a quick and violent death.

I always thought that re: upper deck about Yankee Stadium (pre& post 76)! I hated the upper deck there, but one was right over the field, similar to old Giants Stadium too.

I was last row in upper deck behind home plate for 1988 NLCS vs Dodgers for the Doc/Scioscia/McDowell/Gibson debacle. Before that ninth inning - man it was awesome....


Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

The only time I saw the Mets I was in third? or fourth? grade, with my Cub Scout pack (my father was the Cubmaster or whatever the adult leader was called). It was a night game against Pittsburgh, and it started to rain in the fourth or fifth inning with the Mets up by one run. Unfortunately, the rain stopped quickly and the Pirates won. If it had kept up, they were far enough into the game that it would have been called a win for the Mets...

We went to see several A's games (and one Giants game, but I can't really root for the Giants because they're National League) in the '90s and '00s, maybe the early '10s, and one evening in 1994, we saw something that always happens in sports movies but almost never happens in real life: tenth or eleventh inning, the Away team scores. In the bottom of the inning, bases loaded, two out, and (I swear this is true) full count, and the sonofagun knocked it out of the park. I wish I could remember who it was.

Two days later, the big players' strike began.

Impera littera designata delenda est.

[ronmac]

The only time I saw the Mets I was in third? or fourth? grade, with my Cub Scout pack (my father was the Cubmaster or whatever the adult leader was called). It was a night game against Pittsburgh, and it started to rain in the fourth or fifth inning with the Mets up by one run. Unfortunately, the rain stopped quickly and the Pirates won. If it had kept up, they were far enough into the game that it would have been called a win for the Mets...

We went to see several A's games (and one Giants game, but I can't really root for the Giants because they're National League) in the '90s and '00s, maybe the early '10s, and one evening in 1994, we saw something that always happens in sports movies but almost never happens in real life: tenth or eleventh inning, the Away team scores. In the bottom of the inning, bases loaded, two out, and (I swear this is true) full count, and the sonofagun knocked it out of the park. I wish I could remember who it was.

Two days later, the big players' strike began.

Impera littera designata delenda est.

Here's the schedule. I don't see it. Maybe a bit earlier? Click on the date for the box score

https://www.baseball-almanac.com/tea...p?y=1994&t=OAK

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Weird. I don't see it either. I remember it being against the Rangers, but none of those games fits.

I guess something got exaggerated in my memory over time. Rats.

[Tangram]

The Bronx Bombers live up to their nickname! They have punched their ticket to The Dance for the first time in 15 years!!

[ronmac]

The Bronx Bombers live up to their nickname! They have punched their ticket to The Dance for the first time in 15 years!!

Hats off to the Guardians for being so relentless. Not to take anything away from the hitters, especially Soto and Stanton and a couple others, but I think this series came down to the team that made the least number of blunders on the field and from the dugout.

I think I'd rather have them play the Dodgers, even though a Subway Series would be great for the city.

Can't wait for robo umps, though.

Cleveland's futility continues. 1951.