It Gets Better in Person

I recently watched a sports documentary that was all about the greatest sports moments people had watched in person and how that had influenced their lives.  In the 21^st century of sports, it is all about plopping one’s buttocks on the couch and watching the game with the greatest camera angles in high definition.  However, some iconic moments are truly better to have seen in person.  I figured I would throw in my two cents as to the greatest moments I have ever attended in person.  Now keep in mind, that I have not been to that many sporting outings, just watch a crap load on television.  I have only personally been to about ten MLB games, one NHL game, four NFL games along with one pre-season, zero NBA games, and countless NCAA D-1 hockey and basketball games.  I am sure a lot of sports fans can say they have done a lot better than that, but it’s tough when the pro sports closest to you are not anything to get fired up over.

My number one seen in person moment belongs to the RIT Tigers.  For those of you that do not know, RIT stands for Rochester Institute of Technology.  They are D-3 in all sports, with the exception being hockey.  For Rochester, being D-1 means a lot.  They are no longer in their fledgling phase as a D-1 program as they began in 2005, are four-time regular season conference champion, along with one conference championship that sent them all the way to the Frozen Four in 2010.  My moment comes from their 2011-2012 season, in which they hosted St. Lawrence at the Blue Cross Arena in downtown Rochester.  Normally, RIT plays their games on campus, but they do this every year for Homecoming.  The game was sold out at a total of 10,556 people.  Down 5-4 and needing to pull the goalie, RIT scored the desperation goal with nine seconds remaining in the game.  It was a complete back-and-forth style game as it was tied 3-3 entering the third and was quickly 5-3 bad guys.  Then, somewhat miraculously, off the opening faceoff and only fourteen seconds into the overtime period, Adam Mitchell fired one home to send the sellout crowd into a frenzy.  It was a remarkable game, and do not think I could see something so exciting in hockey in person again.

My number two all-time in person moment belongs to the New York Yankees.  ‘Twas the 2008 season and we all know what that meant; the final days of the old Yankee Stadium were upon us.  I was fortunate enough to see the final game ever to be played between the Red Sox and Yanks at that stadium and it was a fine one indeed.  Mike Mussina and Jon Lester both threw gems on that day, a Thursday in late August.  In the 7^th, down 2-0, Jason Giambi (yes, this guy is still playing today) hit a pinch-hit two-run-homer.  The entire game the crowd seemed almost out of it, a different feeling than normal.  Everyone knew that they were on hallowed ground and that it would not stand much longer.  It was an amazing feeling just to score a few paints chips and splinters of wood, they cannot be
taken away.  In the bottom of the ninth, with only one out and the bases loaded Giambi came to the plate again and singled into center for the walk-off.   I am fully aware that the Yanks did not make the playoffs that year, but that game just seemed a bit magical.  There were the inevitable Giambino references, as he helped them keep their playoff hopes alive.

Just doing this a) makes me want to watch games that can actually affect my teams (having a 4-9-1 football is not the greatest feeling in the world and b) makes me want to go to more games in person because hey, you never know.

Feel free to comment with your favorite in person sports stories…

The “C’mon man’s” of the World Series

We have all paid witness to some of the craziest games in World Series history.  After last night’s shenanigans, we are all tied up 2-2.  I predicted Wednesday of last week that the series would be going seven games, and was leaning towards the Cardinals winning.  The seven games seems a near guarantee, but just about anything else goes.  The two ending plays were firsts in the World Series, a walk-off obstruction call and a walk-off pickoff.  Both plays would have earned “C’mon man’s” from the Monday Night Football crew.

The final play from Saturday night’s fiasco comes with one out, bottom of the ninth.  The game is tied 4-4 with Jon Jay at the dish, Yadier Molina at third and Allen Craig at second.  The infield is drawn in and Jay hits a pretty well struck groundball to Dustin Pedroia, he makes the diving stop and fires home to get the not-so-fleet-of-foot Molina.  Here would be the replay that your grandchildren will look back on with their 7-D computer screens.  Craig had hesitated on the groundball and broke for third on the throw home; Saltalamacchia then throws on his superhero cape and tries to nab him at third.  It was an errant throw at best that sailed into left field.  Thus leading to an obstruction call on Will Middlebrooks, which most are agreeing was the correct call.  If one watches the replay, he at first slightly raises his legs then lowers them when he sees Craig not immediately get up and then throws them up again.  The Cardinals are lucky that Jim Joyce was even paying attention, and Jim Joyce is lucky he got a big call correct.  I also believe that Craig scores if he was not tripped up, even on the bum ankle.  So there’s two “C’mon man’s” on Middlebrooks and Saltalamacchia.

Last night may have been even more difficult to wrap one’s head around.  After an Allen Craig pinch-hit single, everyone in the building had to be thinking at least Beltran would get an at-bat.  Well, it makes sense to think that way, but they were sadly mistaken, he did not receive an official at-bat in the ninth inning.  A speedster Hawaiian named Kolten Wong had come into the game to pinch-run for Craig.  This was probably done in an attempt to break up a double play, as Craig’s ankle was still bothering him.  After a pop-out for the second out, Beltran was coming to the dish.  The Cardinals are down 4-2, so the game could be tied with one swing.  It is important to keep in mind that Beltran’s clutch postseason hitting is putting him in the conversation of possible future Hall of Famer.  The one and only thing Wong needs to do in this situation is let Beltran hit.  Well guess what, he didn’t.  For whatever reason Wong felt the need to dance a bit off of first (possibly to “distract” Uehara while pitching?”) and Uehara wisely picked him off ending the game.  Needless to say, Beltran did not look all that pleased at the plate.  Now you have to feel terrible for the guy, but “C’mon” man.

The world will be watching to see who has the flabbergasting moment within tonight’s game.  No one better go to sleep early as apparently it’s bound to happen on the last play.

Excuse me sir, what is that substance?

Well sports fans, we have a championship upon us.  No not the World Figure Skating Championships featuring Chazz Michael Michaels, but the World Series.  Game 1 on Wednesday night would be placed under the category of entertaining for about thirty-eight minutes, not exactly what the MLB offices were looking for.  There were many things that were interesting to pull from that game.  One of the most talked about thus far is the ruling of the umpires to change their call, something you almost never see in baseball.  However, an interesting storyline came out Thursday morning, oddly enough from a minor league Cardinals pitcher via Twitter.  Tyler Melling tweeted a picture showing an odd yellow substance in Jon Lester’s glove.

Honestly, the most annoying thing about this controversy is that no one seems to care.  The Cardinals GM does not care, the MLB offices do not care, the Red Sox manager John Farrell does not care, Jon Lester believes the ordeal is over and done with.  What the hell are all of you talking about?  Lester was asked about it before Thursday night’s game and here is his exact quote, “I don’t know what that is, it looks like a giant booger.”  This is directly after saying that the object is “apparently” just rosin.  Okay, so which one is it Jonny boy, a booger or some rosin.  So, yeah, basically you got caught red-handed Lester.  Section 8.02 says that the pitcher cannot have any foreign substance on him.  The problem now becomes that no one seems to give a hoot.  Joe Maddon, the manager of the Tampa Bay Rays, gets tips from his pitching coach Jim Hickey all the time explaining how a pitcher is somehow stretching the rules.  Maddon has said however that there is no reason to call someone out on it, as it would cause people to examine his pitchers even closer.  Why are we letting players get away with this?  The game is being swayed in favor of the pitcher at this point, with steroids becoming largely forced out of the game and we are just letting them get away with this?

This is an absolute joke MLB, and I have no idea how you can sit behind your argument of the Cardinals not protesting what was in his glove.  This is the second time this year that someone of the Red Sox has been accused of doctoring the ball.  Clay Buchholz was completely filthy before getting injured this season, and was accused by a Toronto Blue Jays announcer of throwing a spitball or greaseball.  If you watch the tape, some of his balls from that game simply do not break the correct way for a right-hander.  I do not know about you, but I doubt he learned a new pitch just for one start in April.  Of course, it does not help that Lester went and threw 7 2/3 innings of dominant pitching.  The most interesting aspect will be to see if Jon Lester has this “rosin” in his glove come Game 5.  MLB this is your mess, now you need to do something about it.

Why are the Boston Red Sox here?

One of the biggest commodities to have in baseball is pitching.  It’s hard to obtain, hard to train, and even harder to scrape from the minor leagues and have faith in.  Over my entire baseball career, I have been able to watch the grandmaster of closing out games work out of my team’s bullpen.  Yes, that would be The Sandman, Mariano Rivera.  That luxury is gone now, and leads will never seem as safe.  However, it seems as if the team I hate the most may have found that new luxury.

The Boston Red Sox are in the 2013 World Series due to their pitching.  Feel free to look it up; they scored just over three runs a game in the ALCS.  That average is in large part due to two timely swings of David Ortiz and Shane Victorino, without those eight runs they had less than two a game.  The starters were not always perfect for the Sox in this ALCS, but their ‘pen basically was.  The numbers were astounding, with a 0.45 ERA as a group (a run allowed in twenty innings of work) and a WHIP of 1.20.  It is pretty easy to see why Koji Uehara received the MVP of the ALCS.  The Tigers must have known that they needed to create scoring opportunities on the starters, and the Cardinals need to be thinking the same thing.

I am in no way shape or form excited for the Red Sox to be in the position they’re in, especially with the fact that they have a good chance to pull it all off.  However, I think there are a lot of factors aiding them.  The aura they have working in the clubhouse, a never say die attitude, clutch hitting, and a shutdown bullpen has turned this team from worst to first.  Maybe it’s the playoff beards, or the Boston Strong, but much like 2004 this team seems destined to win it all.  With the beards, they have the look of a baseball team.  A team that enjoys the grind of playing every day, not a stoic business organization that can’t have facial hair (if you know who I mean).  I am rooting against you Boston, but I can already see what will likely happen and it’s a good thing for baseball.

Who turned out the lights?

Something that has been pretty peculiar in sports lately is that the lights in stadiums are not exactly staying on.  It’s kind of a big deal, seeing that any sport starting after 4 p.m. needs lighting.  These events have hit three of the main four American sports in recent memory.  In the NFL, there was a thirty-four-minute delay in this year’s Super Bowl, which seemed to have a dramatic effect on the San Francisco 49ers nearly completing an unheard of comeback over the Baltimore Ravens.  Coincidentally, in the first game of the 2013-2014 season the Baltimore Ravens experienced another thirty-four-minute delay against the Denver Broncos.  In the NHL just this past Sunday, there was a sixteen-minute lighting delay in the game featuring the Minnesota Wild at the Buffalo Sabres.  To top that, even though the game was being played in the afternoon, Game 3 of the ALCS was delayed this Tuesday at Comerica Park due to banks of lights going out.  Maybe I am wrong, but the issue seems near rampant.  Has there ever been a time in the history of sports that something like this has occurred?

Due to me being a college student and not exactly an electrician, physics major, or have any sort of knowledge on the topic, I will not even attempt to understand how to fix it.  My best personal guess is Buffalo Wild Wings is buying someone out at every stadium.  They started with the Super Bowl and figured they would work their way down.  Not sure how to explain the First Niagara Center as target number three, but they know what they’re doing better than I do.  All jokes aside, what is being done to figure out the problems with this electricity?  It is costing sports games viewers (I basically quit watching the ALCS game for a few hours due to the delay) and simply disgruntling fans that are at the game.  If you are at a game, there is already enough stoppage time and no one wants to wait through a lighting delay.

Turn the switch back on please, Buffalo Wild Wings.