Letters to the Editor
-
My exact words
"A guy who writes movie music is the epitome of our culture?"
My wife thought I was making too much of it.
On the other hand, she also has a tendency to get annoyed every time she hears the announcer refer to a ball that bounces into the stands as a "ground rule double", because she knows that I will always feel it necessary to point out that it is decidedly not a ground rule double, but an automatic double.
Great game. Too bad we can't bank some of those runs for another night.
-
Ground-Rule Doubles
That bugs me too, but in at least one game this post-season one announcer did say "rulebook double." It was nice to hear.
As far as momentum goes, if the Indians lost it after a single day off, surely it makes little difference for the Rockies to wait eight days instead of, say, five. But aside from Hurdle's idiotic decision to play in, I didn't see any evidence of lack of momentum. When Beckett made a mistake, they hit it hard. He just didn't make too many mistakes.
-
Sox in 4
It's been decided by professional gamblers and TV. They need to clear baseball off the schedule ASAP.
-
From The Broadcast
Todd Helton comes to the plate------He's been one of the great hitters, yeah everyone says 'sure but he plays in Colorado' but he's been the same on the road too.
Is this?
A.) An outright distortion-lie
or
B.) He's making it up as he goes along.
Usually the boys behind the scenes present graphics to substantiate the blabbing, but no graphics this time.
-
Plus
You watch these dink richochets off that green monster over and over. Been going on for decades.
And they call Bonds stats a fraud.
-
Long layoffs after sustained intensity
I did not watch much of the pre-game hype, but what little I did see went out of its way to declare that the long break would not affect the Rockies' momentum. These guys should go to work for the Big Ten! The element they are ignoring is the weeks of intense focus that came before the break. Once you let down from an experience like that [think of last year's Michigan-Ohio State game], it is hard to get the focus back. An extended break just compounds the problem -- the longer you wait, the harder it is to shake the distractions and get ready to play.
But. as King so rightly points out, this is baseball. The only real question for tonight's game, like last night's, is "Will the layoff affect Colorado's starting pitcher?" Since that's an individual question, it's hard to say. But the answer to the overall question of whether long layoffs have an affect on play is an obvious yes. Eight days (or twelve days, or whatever it is for the Colorado starters) does not seem like much, but in baseball it is a long break. Add to that the fact that the Rockies' layoff came after a month of intense action, where every game mattered.
The Rockies have to win tonight to have any chance. If they don't get to Schilling tonight, they are done. Matsuzaka is fatigued from a long season of diffcult mental and physical adjustments, but he will pull six solid innings out of his hat in Colorado. Lester, with a 3-0 series lead, will relax and that big curveball will go where he wants it to go.
But Schilling can be had. Lately he's been good, but over the course of the season he's been inconsistent. I would expect the same in the postseason. Francona may regret not putting Tavarez on the Series roster tonight. Snyder lacks experience, so it's hard to know what you're going to get from him. Tavarez is their best stop-the-bleeding reliever. What use is Gagne if Synder falters?
-
Fenway Dinks Homers Elsewhere
It's not as if the Monster were 250 feet from the plate. It's about the stock distance for a left field wall, except it also goes about 40 feet in the air. A lot of the dinks that bounce off The Wall for doubles (and with a good left fielder, often only singles), would be home runs in most other ballparks, including a couple hit last night. A ball that hits the wall 15 feet above the left fielder is unlikely to be caught up with and caught in other parks.
-
Yeah Right
So all these Mickey Mouse Boston hitters that hit a ton of doubles throughout the years would have led the league in home runs if they had just not been in Boston.
-
Last Night
Drew hit one down the left field line, the other way for the lefty. When it came off his bat it didn't look like anything. No stunned yelp from the announcer at contact. The camera follows it and it sails well higher than the wall a little bit foul.
-
Green Monster
It's significantly closer than most parks' left field fence. The official left field line measurement in Fenway is 310 feet (actual measurements put it at about 305'). Most ballparks are 325-340 feet down the line. And because of the wall, the fence doesn't bow out from the line to the power alley. Jody Reed wasn't hitting 40+ doubles a year because he was getting screwed out of 15 homers.
And it can't be said often enough -- FOX is awful. The production choices somehow manage to be simultaneously overwrought and contemptuous. As does Jeanne Zelasko. They got lucky with Eric Byrnes, though, who has a definite future in broadcasting.
-
TV sucks
Turn down the sound on your TV, and turn on the radio. The radio broadcast is almost always better than the idiots on TV, with the exception of Rem-Dawg. I live in New England where you can always get the Red Sox (and the Yankees and Mets, too) on the radio, but the World Series is on ESPN radio, isn't this carried nationwide?
-
I'd like to thank Fox...
...for scheduling ALL the World Series games to start at 8:30 PM. My baseball loving 8 year old son was really impressed with that decision.
-
One Sign of the Lay-off Hurting
Beckett was phenomenal last night, but it seemed like the only pitch he needed was his fastball.
He could've gone the whole night throwing fastballs, and I don't think the Rockies would have done much damage. I realize that part of this was his pin-point control-everything was on the edge of the strike zone. But it also seemed like they just couldn't catch up with it.
I attribute some of this to rust, although I don't think it accounts for 12 runs.