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.

Let the ranting begin

Well, this is going to be about sports.  And if you didn’t know that this was going to be about sports then A) you probably can’t understand a theme and B) you don’t know me.  I guess it is entirely possible that you don’t know me, but my writing will bring insight into that.  I’ll start off by saying that I do have favorite sports teams, as any actual fan of sports does.  They would be (in a relatively important order): the New York Yankees, the Minnesota Vikings, the Buffalo Sabres, the St. Bonaventure Bonnies, the New York Knicks, and the RIT Tigers.  They each have a special place in my heart, and never expect any of them to change.  I will follow that up with the fact that I will try to talk about them as little as possible, and if I do, it will probably be in a bashing fashion.  I have a very wide interest in sports, and it effects just about every waking moment of my life.  I understand that that may seem naïve, or pointless, but hey there is something that gets you out of bed in the morning.

I guess I can begin my first rant at this point.  Being that it is the month of October that means one thing, no not pumpkin spice lattes and the coming of the Uggs, but playoff baseball.  It has been a pretty entertaining post-season so far, witnessing a game 163 and Buctober was cool for a wee bit.  However, my rant will be aimed at the Cleveland Indians and Oakland Athletics.  The Indians were able to become the lead pony in the hectic AL Wild Card scene down the stretch, earning a home game against the Tampa Bay Rays for the wild card game.  The A’s looked awfully good in September and were able to win the AL West, meaning a divisional series against the Detroit Tigers.

Now I realize in both of the games I am about to talk about that the teams scored a combined zero runs, and well you can’t win that way last time I checked.  However, in the Indians game they decided to throw Danny Salazar, a rookie with ten starts in the big leagues.  The Indians went on to lose 4-0, but my question is did starting Salazar really give them the best chance of winning that game?  I know it was his turn in the rotation, but Justin Masterson pitched in relief.  Your ace was pretty well rested from not starting for most of September, so what were you saving him for your hopeful Game 1 of the ALDS?  Toss zeroes with your ace.

Now, please keep in mind that I was actually rooting for these teams in each of these games.  The A’s came down to the winner-take-all Game 5 of the ALDS with the Tigers.  Bob Melvin decided to throw his rookie Sonny Gray, who had made waves after his sparkler in Game 2.  Evidently, he decided that Gray made more sense than the revitalized, ever-so-slim Bartolo Colon.  Going up against Justin Verlander, and knowing that you aren’t an offensive team means you need zeroes!  How can you have faith in a 23 year old that only made twelve appearances all year?  Start the more proven guy.

Maybe I’m wrong, but sometimes I wonder if I could do your job.