BATTER UP!

[Fading Fast]

Nice defense for Houston there in the seventh inning. "A ground ball? These days??? Who knows how to field a ground ball?"

Yes, but also, a lot of soft hits accumulating to a lot of damage.

 

[belfastboy]

Wow, I'm confused, the Yankees and Dodgers are in the World Series this year?

Dodgers had nice uni's but only when imprinted with Brooklyn.....gotta hate thd Yankees regardless if what they wear.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That "LA" patch on the sleeve of the Dodgers jersey really stinks the design up -- and not just because they shouldn't have left Bedford Avenue. It's taking what was essentially a perfect design and cluttering it up with unnecessary gingerbread, and for what? Merch purposes? Blah.

The Yankees and I will forever stand on the opposite sides of the divide, but I have the utmost respect for their stand against compromising their uniform design.

Too many teams these days clutter their uniforms up with patches and junk. There's something to be said for clean, plain simplicity. The Nationals have a nice design, but they ought to take it step further and go back to their city's traditional, historical design -- a blank jersey with a small, tasteful block "W" on each sleeve. It worked for Walter Johnson, it could work for Stephen Strasburg.

You know you're a master of understated style when you're shaking hands with Coolidge, and he's the one who looks flashy.

 

[Fading Fast]

Congratulations to the Nationals.

Interesting and cool that the away team won all seven games - never happened before in a World Series.

 

[LizzieMaine]

An outstanding 7th game. I was rooting for the Nats -- my long-lost Expos, alas -- but I felt bad for Grienke. That's gotta hurt.

 

[Fading Fast]

An outstanding 7th game. I was rooting for the Nats -- my long-lost Expos, alas -- but I felt bad for Grienke. That's gotta hurt.

Agreed, fun WS. I had little rooting interest until the Nats won the first few games and then I just found myself rooting for them.

I will point out that had the Yankees - for some reason I can't fathom - not tried to trade for Grienke when the Astros did, we might have seen a very different WS.

It must be awful to have your worst day at work broadcast live to the world.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I was fortunate enough to attend last night’s Game 7. Greinke pitched his butt off (and he doesn’t throw 99 mph so he actually has to pitch). The Astros left way too many runners on base, and then the wheels fell off eight outs away. Baseball can be cruel to the loser. Still, the Nationals were good all season, and they were smoking hot in September and October. The Postseason works that way sometimes.

To add insult to injury, when I finally got out of the park about midnight, it was 40 degrees and pouring down rain. I had to walk about two miles in the freezing rain back to my car. It was a miserable walk. But...Spring Training starts in about 16 weeks...

 

[LizzieMaine]

Last night's game was a historic last: it was the last major league game to be played by teams wearing uniforms without a manufacturer's patch visible on the front. Next year, every team will have a big stupid Nike swish disfiguring the upper right front of their jerseys. Sponsorship logos a la the NBA are closer than you think.

 

[Fading Fast]

It always takes a bit of adjusting to there being no baseball - no scores or standings to check, no boxscores to look over, no games to look forward to, no, well, baseball. I follow football somewhat (and less than I do baseball), but it has nowhere near the day-to-day engagement of baseball.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Time to fire up the Hot Stove. if the Sox lose Mookie Betts, my mother will personally go down to Boston and throw this Chaim Bloom guy out a window.

 

[LizzieMaine]

So -- the scandals. The Red Sox did the right thing by cutting Cora loose -- but I want to know what the Front Office knew and when did they know it? The difference between the 2018 and 2019 seasons suggests to me that more was afoot than just lousy pitching and injuries. If John Henry & Company knew about this last year and sat on it, hoping everything would blow over, then they deserve the full weight of discipline, as in the Cox-Steinbrenner-Schott treatment, and they deserve it right now. But I don't think Manfred has the guts to do that.

And player access to video gear during games has to stop, period. If you must have replays, put them in the press box, and assign an extra umpire to be up there with the monitor. No more equipment anywhere near the dugouts or playing field.

 

[belfastboy]

It always takes a bit of adjusting to there being no baseball - no scores or standings to check, no boxscores to look over, no games to look forward to, no, well, baseball. I follow football somewhat (and less than I do baseball), but it has nowhere near the day-to-day engagement of baseball.

In my youth there were two sporting seasons....baseball season and the season waiting for baseball season. The day pitchers and catchers reported to spring training was always a big day. Both Spring and Baseball were within sight. Time to oil the glove and bone the bats.

 

[belfastboy]

So -- the scandals. The Red Sox did the right thing by cutting Cora loose -- but I want to know what the Front Office knew and when did they know it? The difference between the 2018 and 2019 seasons suggests to me that more was afoot than just lousy pitching and injuries. If John Henry & Company knew about this last year and sat on it, hoping everything would blow over, then they deserve the full weight of discipline, as in the Cox-Steinbrenner-Schott treatment, and they deserve it right now. But I don't think Manfred has the guts to do that.

And player access to video gear during games has to stop, period. If you must have replays, put them in the press box, and assign an extra umpire to be up there with the monitor. No more equipment anywhere near the dugouts or playing field.

My first thought yesterday after reading of the Astros firing....is this the end for Hinch and now Cora? Or will they serve a compensatory time in purgatory and eventually be rehabilitated? Or as Jim Morrison sang...."this is the end!"

 

[Fading Fast]

So -- the scandals. The Red Sox did the right thing by cutting Cora loose -- but I want to know what the Front Office knew and when did they know it? The difference between the 2018 and 2019 seasons suggests to me that more was afoot than just lousy pitching and injuries. If John Henry & Company knew about this last year and sat on it, hoping everything would blow over, then they deserve the full weight of discipline, as in the Cox-Steinbrenner-Schott treatment, and they deserve it right now. But I don't think Manfred has the guts to do that.

And player access to video gear during games has to stop, period. If you must have replays, put them in the press box, and assign an extra umpire to be up there with the monitor. No more equipment anywhere near the dugouts or playing field.

Am I following you, are you saying that you think something dirty was going on in the Red Sox championship season?

My first thought yesterday after reading of the Astros firing....is this the end for Hinch and now Cora? Or will they serve a compensatory time in purgatory and eventually be rehabilitated? Or as Jim Morrison sang...."this is the end!"

I hate to see lives ruined, but also, if we don't have severe penalties for severe crimes, then we'll just have more severe crimes. From what I've read in the past two days (and I want to emphasize, it's based on nothing more than that), Cora should be out of baseball period as he was a very active participant in it - not just looking the other way and avoiding hearing things - he planed parts of it out and helped in the execution.

My guess, he'll be back.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think 2018 was enough of an outlier for the Red Sox -- compared to recent seasons -- that it needs to be looked at very closely. And if it turns out there was cheating going on, the franchise needs to have the book thrown at it, and I say this as a lifelong fan, from a family whose fandom goes back to the very beginning of the team. A championship won thru this kind of chicanery is no championship at all.

If the investigation shows that Cora continued with the scheme in Boston after leaving Houston, a lifetime ban is in order. There's a difference between an opportunist and a serial cheater.

 

[Fading Fast]

I think 2018 was enough of an outlier for the Red Sox -- compared to recent seasons -- that it needs to be looked at very closely. And if it turns out there was cheating going on, the franchise needs to have the book thrown at it, and I say this as a lifelong fan, from a family whose fandom goes back to the very beginning of the team. A championship won thru this kind of chicanery is no championship at all.

I agree completely and believe (or at least hope) I'd say the same if it was true of the Yankees. IMO, one of the things that is broken today is that we don't promote / strive for / put as a top goal honesty and integrity. Of course, we'll never achieve it, but we don't even robustly promote it, say, the way were promote charity.

I've noted before, that some (not all) of the younger kids I hired over the past ten or so years do great charity work, but I wouldn't trust them in a situation calling for true integrity. When I was a kid, integrity at home, in school and when I started work was highly emphasized; whereas, charity was promoted as a good thing to do, but not at the same level.

I did not guess for a second that the Red Sox cheated (and don't know that they did), but all 2019 season long, I remember thinking - how could they be playing so mediocrely when they have, basically, the same team that dominated the year before.

 

[belfastboy]

Am I following you, are you saying that you think something dirty was going on in the Red Sox championship season?



I hate to see lives ruined, but also, if we don't have severe penalties for severe crimes, then we'll just have more severe crimes. From what I've read in the past two days (and I want to emphasize, it's based on nothing more than that), Cora should be out of baseball period as he was a very active participant in it - not just looking the other way and avoiding hearing things - he planed parts of it out and helped in the execution.

My guess, he'll be back.

I am a conservative by nature and really do believe in the rule of law. However, at the risk of ridicule I hold a different position when it comes to baseball. I think 'cheating' has long been part of the game, part of looking for the edge and to me adds a bit to the allure. This recent Houston transgression brings it into the electronic age but is along the same lines as chewing slippery elm to produce spit, emory board in the back pocket, vaseline on the underside of the cap brim, pine tar up the bat and on the deterrent side of the coin the timeless antidote to signal theft......signalling for the breaking ball down and away and then throwing a fastball up and in. As they used to say..."Spin his hat"....that used to be the proper response to any attempt at gaming the system.

On the one hand Houston came up with a creative strategy but so poorly implemented....banging a garbage can for goodness sake??
Then as I related the story to my wife, a decided non baseball fan,....." yeh, but they still have to hit it! "

 

[belfastboy]

I agree completely and believe (or at least hope) I'd say the same if it was true of the Yankees. IMO, one of the things that is broken today is that we don't promote / strive for / put as a top goal honesty and integrity. Of course, we'll never achieve it, but we don't even robustly promote it, say, the way were promote charity.

I've noted before, that some (not all) of the younger kids I hired over the past ten or so years do great charity work, but I wouldn't trust them in a situation calling for true integrity. When I was a kid, integrity at home, in school and when I started work was highly emphasized; whereas, charity was promoted as a good thing to do, but not at the same level.

I did not guess for a second that the Red Sox cheated (and don't know that they did), but all 2019 season long, I remember thinking - how could they be playing so mediocrely when they have, basically, the same team that dominated the year before.

I think a big part of it was their pitching staff all got old at the same time.

 

[Harp]

I did not guess for a second that the Red Sox cheated (and don't know that they did), but all 2019 season long, I remember thinking - how could they be playing so mediocrely when they have, basically, the same team that dominated the year before.

I thought the same about the Cubs last year.

 

[belfastboy]

I agree completely and believe (or at least hope) I'd say the same if it was true of the Yankees. IMO, one of the things that is broken today is that we don't promote / strive for / put as a top goal honesty and integrity. Of course, we'll never achieve it, but we don't even robustly promote it, say, the way were promote charity.

I've noted before, that some (not all) of the younger kids I hired over the past ten or so years do great charity work, but I wouldn't trust them in a situation calling for true integrity. When I was a kid, integrity at home, in school and when I started work was highly emphasized; whereas, charity was promoted as a good thing to do, but not at the same level.

I did not guess for a second that the Red Sox cheated (and don't know that they did), but all 2019 season long, I remember thinking - how could they be playing so mediocrely when they have, basically, the same team that dominated the year before.

Hasn't cheating been a part of the game for a very long time? Should Gaylord Perry's records now be expunged as he was a serial slobberer of the baseball? I am not sure we can look back on baseball and declare there was a golden age of integrity and honour to the game. In many ways the game used to be much more brutal than today's gentile version. The game is filled with hard men who would bend the rules, knock you down, open up your calf with a metal cleat, tag you in the mouth with a baseball, separate your shoulder at home plate with a takeout slide, emery boards, Vaseline, slippery elm, signals from the runner at second base were all part of the game in bygone years and to me were a wonderful part of the allure of the game. Every era deserves to have their rogues and outliers...….adds character and provides great anecdotes.