\n<\/span>I hate the DH with as much as I hate anything else in this world.\u00a0 I can’t stand Astroturf (though, it’s AMAZING to play on).\u00a0 I don’t necessarily hate the “This Game Counts” rule for the All-Star Game, but I completely DESPISE the fact that we have to make<\/em> it count.\u00a0 And, I can’t stand any best-of-5 format.\u00a0 BUT…I LOVE this extra wild card.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 First of all, it’s exciting, but that’s cheap and easy.\u00a0 Most of all, because I really look at it as not necessarily adding a wild card, but actually\u00a0taking one away – or, at least, taking away\u00a0any advantage\u00a0for the division winner.\u00a0 Yes,\u00a0might Baltimore and St. Louis meet in the World Series?\u00a0\u00a0Yes, but\u00a0Texas and Atlanta didn’t even get\u00a0to the Division Series.\u00a0 And, the Orioles and Cards will have done so against\u00a0longer odds than any of the division winners – and rightfully so.\u00a0 And, honestly, it’s exciting!\u00a0 That wild card day was fantastic.\u00a0 And anyone who argues that it’s “fabricated excitement” is a hypocrite if they argue for any playoff system whatsoever.\u00a0 If you denounce this “fabricated excitement” created by the one-game playoff, your argument would have to finish with just crowning the Washington Nationals as 2012 MLB champs because they were the best team over 162 games.\u00a0 Hell, I’d be all for letting all 30 teams in a big playoff, where #30 plays #29 with the winner playing #28 for the right to play #27, and so on…<\/p>\n
While a Really Bad Call, the Bogus Infield Fly Call Actually HELPED The Braves<\/span><\/em> This Bad Call Actually HELPED the Braves...<\/p><\/div>\n Hey, at Least They Sold Out the Playoff Game for a Change.<\/span><\/em> Managers Stepping Up<\/span><\/em> Is Robinson Cano<\/a> Lost at Sea?<\/span><\/em> My Pick to Win the World Series<\/span><\/em> I know that we are now\u00a04 games into the LCS’s, and the DS’s are ancient history, but I\u00a0wanted to throw out some random thoughts about the first week in the always fascinating MLB playoffs. This Hard-Core Traditionalist LOVES The Extra … Continue reading
\nFirst of all, the infield fly call in the Braves-Cardinals Wild Card Game was a bad call.\u00a0 The point of the rule is so the infielder can’t intentionally drop a pop-up and turn a double-play.\u00a0 Well, you saw what happened when that<\/em> popup was dropped – they didn’t get anyone<\/em> out!\u00a0 So, there is no debate that the call was wrong.\u00a0 However, I couldn’t disagree more with those of you that said it cost the Braves the game.\u00a0 In fact, not only did it not cost them the game, but it didn’t cost them anything.\u00a0 The Braves actually benefitted<\/em> from that call, at least from what I could tell.\u00a0 When a popup is hit into shallow leftfield, there is a tacit understanding between the leftfielder and the shortstop that if no one says anything, it’s the shortstop’s ball, but it is the leftfielder’s clear responsibility to call off the shortstop if he can make the play because it’s an easier catch coming in.\u00a0 So, as a shortstop, you are finely trained to go after the ball hard, all the while listening to be called off, in which case you better get out of the way.\u00a0 As Kozma went back on the ball, he was ready to make the catch, but was also dutifully waiting to be called off by Holliday.\u00a0 There is no doubt in my mind that when the umpire – who was standing 10 feet from Kozma – yelled “INFIELD FLY, BATTER’S OUT,” Kozma mistook it for his leftfielder calling him off, peeled off and the ball dropped.\u00a0 Yes, it is his fault that he misheard it, but if the umpire did his job and said nothing<\/em>, then he would have caught the ball and the runners would have remained at 1st and 2nd.\u00a0 Instead, the ball fell, and the runners advanced.\u00a0 Obviously, the Braves didn’t capitalize, but they were clearly (by my judgment) actually put in a better <\/em>situation because of the umpire’s mistake.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/l1.yimg.com\/bt\/api\/res\/1.2\/ewrm1BsH6z2guqU3ZJoFZg--\/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--\/http:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/blogs\/sptusmlbexperts\/infieldflycards.jpg\" "\\"Bad")
\nThen, in the wake of that call, how embarrassing was it when Braves fans threw so much trash on to the field that it delayed the game for more than 15 minutes?\u00a0 Absolutely classless.\u00a0 Where was that on the front page of every national sports site?\u00a0 If that was Philly, it would have been on Good Morning, America<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nFor a sport with “experts” that like to do nothing more than criticize managers for their moves, October seems to be bringing out the best in this much-maligned species of baseball man.\u00a0 Joe Girardi<\/a>, obviously, made the splashiest move by pinch-hitting for the best right-handed hitter of all-time with a 40-year old who hit the game-tying and game-winning home runs in ALDS Game 4.\u00a0 But, I am much more concerned with the more subtle decisions that are a lot harder to analyze.\u00a0 Buck Showalter<\/a>‘s decision to start Joe Saunders<\/a> in the winner-take-all wild card game (as prescribed<\/a>\u00a0by BSB’s own, Gross, the day of that game) exemplified the steady hand he has had on that wheel all year.\u00a0 And, then there was that Reds-Giants series, that had two managers oft-criticized for their approach to their pitching staffs put on an absolute clinic on how to use a bullpen in a short series.\u00a0 I did not exactly like Bob Melvin<\/a>‘s treatment of the 9th inning in the elimination Game 4, but it seemed to work out okay for them on that day.<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cdn.newsday.com\/polopoly_fs\/1.3695630.1336013120!\/httpImage\/image.JPG_gen\/derivatives\/display_600\/image.JPG\" "\\"Robinson")
Doogan asked me the other day “Do you think Robinson Cano has ever gone 2-for-32 before in his entire life???\u00a0 Not the best timing.”\u00a0 Not only would this Cano slump (which is grossly overshadowed by One Life to Live<\/em>, starring Alex Rodriguez<\/a>) be incredible at any point, it is even more incredible if you consider that he finished the regular season in absolute blistering <\/em>fashion.\u00a0 In fact, Cano entered the playoffs with a ridiculous streak of NINE straight multi-hit games – the first time anyone has even had a streak of 8 or more since, well, Robinson Cano, in 2010.\u00a0 In those 9 games, Cano his .615…yes, .615…with 24 hits in 39 at-bats.\u00a0 And, he’s not the only one who ended the regular season red-hot only to go ice cold in the postseason.\u00a0 Here is an article<\/a>\u00a0from the day after the regular season ended that mentioned, among others, some of the postseason’s worst hitters as players to watch this postseason simply because of how hot they were down the stretch:\u00a0 Cano, Nick Swisher<\/a>, Curtis Granderson<\/a>, Chris Davis<\/a>, Brandon Moss<\/a>, and\u00a0Bryce Harper<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nI said before the playoffs started that the winner of the Giants-Reds series would win the whole thing.\u00a0 While I hate the whole “I can’t change my original pick” theory that has plagued sportswriters, I still hold on to the Giants as my pick to win this thing, despite how good the Tigers and Cardinals both look right now.\u00a0 Pitching wins, and the Giants have it – in the rotation and in the ‘pen.\u00a0 If, in 2010 when the Phillies acquired Roy Halladay<\/a>, I told you that, by the end of 2012,\u00a0Barry Zito<\/a> would have two more World Series rings Mr. Halladay, you would have had me committed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"