Nationals Baseball: Post-season thoughts

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Post-season thoughts

Some random thoughts on the post-season
  • I'm shocked how quickly baseball fans have gotten obsessed with using replay. Five years ago, hell maybe 3 years ago, I think the prevailing attitude was "We've lived with it for this long and it's fine. Let's not take the human element out of the game and drag these out even longer" Now it's "TBS's BALL TRACK SAID THAT PITCH WAS ONE INCH OFF THE PLATE!!!!1!!1! HOW DARE THE UMP CALL IT A STRIKE!!1!1! REPLAY!!1!!!"

  • This is an odd Championship series for me. Usually I feel bad for the players and fans of the losing team, regardless of who I want to win. Everyone tries hard and cares alot, right? But both the Yankees and Phillies won a World Series real recently so how sad can you feel? I mean it will still suck because the Yankees lost and they should win every game they ever play, but I won't feel sorry for anyone.

    When was the last time you could have two teams desperately hungry for a WS title beat two teams not as hungry? 1998 I think, when the Braves ('96) and Yankees ('95) both were in their respective CS. Of course the Yanks beat the poor desperate Indians that year. Then before that... maybe 1974 and 5? Both times Oakland ('72, '73) and Pittsburgh ('71) made the CS. 1974 though had Oakland making the World Series and besides they beat the not desperate Orioles ('70). 1975 was better when the Reds beat the Pirates and the Red Sox beat the A's. That was the last time fans of everyone getting their chance might have had clear rooting interests and gotten their wish.

  • Shane Victorino is my least favorite player in the playoffs, but Cody Ross is rapidly climbing the list. That shaved head / full beard combo makes me want to punch him in the face.

  • The terrorists won the minute baseball decided to put "God Bless America" into every 7th inning stretch. I love America. I don't want to have to confirm that twice every ball game.

  • I think it stinks that the West Coast teams can't have their own night games. I understand why, but I still don't like it. Personally I think people on the East Coast just need to learn to stay up later. (says the guy who goes to sleep around 1:30)

  • Unless I was wrong with my quick look each team left in the postseason had one ex-Nat on their team at the end of the year. Two of them, Cristian Guzman (Texas) and Jose Guillen (San Francisco) were left off the post-season rosters entirely, while the other two, Brian Schneider (Philadelphia) and Austin Kearns (New York), have yet to have a post season at-bat. I guess the cache of playing in Washington has worn off.

7 comments:

cass said...

What's wrong with a shaved head and a beard? Beards are awesome. One of the reasons the Yankees suck is their history of crazy groomy enforcement to make their players to look like little boys. Real men have beards.

And how can you hate someone who is beating the Phillies so bad? Cody "Babe" Ross is teh awesome.

I agree completely about people complaining too much about bad calls and the crazy God Bless America nonsense. People act like it's the National Anthem. It's not. It's my least favorite song in the world. I'd rather listen to Justin Bieber than GBA. Ugh. Take Me Out To The Ball Game is the one true song of the 7th inning.

Besides, combining religion and patriotism is lame and unamerican. This country was founded on freedom of religion, so conflating god and country is borderline treasonous. Not that I have strong feelings on the matter or anything...

Anonymous said...

ok, I'm a neophyte here but by 'playoff roster' is that the 25-man? And why trade for Guillen and Guzman at the deadline if you're going to leave them off? We're they filling in for guys who were injured but are back now?

Harper said...

cass - got no problem with a beard, got no problem with shaved head, got no problem with shaved head and goatee or shaved head and mustache, don't like the beard + shaved head. That part where the sideburns are supposed to hit the hair on top and instead nothing is there bothers the hell out of me. FACE PUNCH!

Anon - The playoff roster is 25 guys but managers have a little flexibility on who gets on it. Anyone eligible for the 25-man roster at the time of September call-ups can be on it. This is everyone you had on your 25-man roster on August 31st PLUS anyone you had on your disabled list. Also if someone gets injured after that they can be replaced for the playoffs with anyone in your organization. The short of it is you usually have 27 or 28 guys to choose from, plus insurance if someone is injured. Like everything else it's actually a bit more complicated but that's the gist of it.

As for leaving off Guillen and Guzman if we add Zito we can cover all the reasons someone might get left off a roster .

Zito was left off because usually 5th starters get squeezed out for an extra relief arm.

Guillen was left off the DS roster because he was a bit injured. Given that he wasn't that great, they decided to go with someone healthy. That turned out to be Cody Ross, who was awesome. The Giants see no reason to change the roster now.

Guzman was left off the roster because he sucked and the Rangers had enough back-ups at his spot that they didn't have to take him.

Bryan said...

I can second (and third) the comment about Victorino. He's an absolute annoyance. He's essentially a ditzy blonde.

To make matters worse, some people respect the hell out of him as a player.

Really? Maybe when he's hitting .280 you can ignore that piss-poor fielding and baserunning.

When he hits .260, or .200, its a lot harder to ignore that he doesn't know the rules of the game, doesn't take second when the throw is going home, takes bad paths to the ball in the field, and steals bases with Howard up.

He's maybe the most overrated player in baseball.

Barney said...

Agreed on the irrelevance of the "loyalty oath" demand for god and country in the middle of the game. Imagine if I had to stand up in my cube everyday at 2 pm and sing "God Bless America".

As for Ross' looks: for centuries young people have tried to distinguish themselves from the previous generation via music, clothes and hair. He's not doing it to prove he's in YOUR friends-list. This isn't a golf tournament...

Harper said...

bryan - well there's always Eckstein who's maybe been a useful player twice in a decade long career.

barney - I understand all that and still don't care. I like running with unsupported, illogical gut feelings about individuals I don't know.

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