MLB 2009 Season

[BruceW]

I have watched very little baseball ever since the baseball strike before the World Series in 19?? After watching the Cardinals lose that game yesterday makes me want to puke. (Not necessarily a total Cardinals fan nor a Dodger gan). The question is; How can you not know how to catch a line drive straight at you in the outfield and you are supposed to be a major leaguer?? Man, what a blunder..... and let us not forget the style and grace of Manny's catch a little earlier... a whole lot of overpaid dufus players. In my day (we won't discuss when that was) if you couldn't catch a ball, you didn't play......

[Matthew]

I have watched very little baseball ever since the baseball strike before the World Series in 19?? After watching the Cardinals lose that game yesterday makes me want to puke. (Not necessarily a total Cardinals fan nor a Dodger gan). The question is; How can you not know how to catch a line drive straight at you in the outfield and you are supposed to be a major leaguer?? Man, what a blunder..... and let us not forget the style and grace of Manny's catch a little earlier... a whole lot of overpaid dufus players. In my day (we won't discuss when that was) if you couldn't catch a ball, you didn't play......

Re: Holliday. Without a doubt, he should have caught the ball, but hey, that's baseball. I would not get on Holliday's case too much -- he's a great player, plays the game hard, and he feels worse than anyone about what happened. St. Louis is still not out of this, they just have a very hard road to hoe, have to win three straight, but it's doable. Mannyworld is a whole other case though...

[Noj]

Cardinals' starter Wainwright bitterly said it's possible Holliday lost the ball in the waving white playoff towels which were handed out at Dodger Stadium, and suggested MLB do something about that trend. VERY odd to see Holliday get eaten up by a routine line drive without all that much mustard on it, usually a fielder will pick one direction (the correct one) to position his glove and stay with it.

[Dave James]

I don't think you should come down too hard on Holliday. Of course he's a major league ball player and of course he should be able to field his position, but let's not fool ourselves, he's in the lineup for his bat, not his glove. I'm not bragging, but I've played a fair amount of outfield both in baseball and 25 years of slow pitch softball. Balls that are hit directly at you are the hardest ones to judge. Also, depending on how they're hit, they can do some pretty funny things. On more than a few occasions, I've had them act like someone has thrown you a darn good knuckle ball. Other times, the balls are hit with a lot of spin and they can move quickly to your right or left making it hard to react quickly to what's happening. They can also drop or rise. I haven't heard any interviews with the perp at this point, but he's the only one who can tell you exactly what happened. What can't be argued is that that was a hell of a way to lose a ball game.

Up over and out.

[Chalupa]

Cardinals' starter Wainwright bitterly said it's possible Holliday lost the ball in the waving white playoff towels which were handed out at Dodger Stadium, and suggested MLB do something about that trend. VERY odd to see Holliday get eaten up by a routine line drive without all that much mustard on it, usually a fielder will pick one direction (the correct one) to position his glove and stay with it.

Oh cry me a river.

[Chalupa]

Oh and when will the Phillies "brain trust" accept the fact that Hamels doesn't like to pitch day games. He gave an lengthy interview this week about his distaste for pitching day games. He's now 10-13 with a 4.66 ERA in 37 career day starts. I realize there will be times when he has to pitch a day game because of the schedule but they could have easily started Happ yesterday. Not to mention Hamels' wife is a week past her due date w/ their first child.

[Matthew]

I don't think you should come down too hard on Holliday. Of course he's a major league ball player and of course he should be able to field his position, but let's not fool ourselves, he's in the lineup for his bat, not his glove. I'm not bragging, but I've played a fair amount of outfield both in baseball and 25 years of slow pitch softball. Balls that are hit directly at you are the hardest ones to judge. Also, depending on how they're hit, they can do some pretty funny things. On more than a few occasions, I've had them act like someone has thrown you a darn good knuckle ball. Other times, the balls are hit with a lot of spin and they can move quickly to your right or left making it hard to react quickly to what's happening. They can also drop or rise. I haven't heard any interviews with the perp at this point, but he's the only one who can tell you exactly what happened. What can't be argued is that that was a hell of a way to lose a ball game.

Up over and out.

Dave, you're right about those line drives, they can be very tricky. It looks like Holliday got caught in a bad glove position -- he could not figure out whether to go above or below the ball with the glove, if you know what I mean.

[BruceW]

I don't think you should come down too hard on Holliday. Of course he's a major league ball player and of course he should be able to field his position, but let's not fool ourselves, he's in the lineup for his bat, not his glove. I'm not bragging, but I've played a fair amount of outfield both in baseball and 25 years of slow pitch softball. Balls that are hit directly at you are the hardest ones to judge. Also, depending on how they're hit, they can do some pretty funny things. On more than a few occasions, I've had them act like someone has thrown you a darn good knuckle ball. Other times, the balls are hit with a lot of spin and they can move quickly to your right or left making it hard to react quickly to what's happening. They can also drop or rise. I haven't heard any interviews with the perp at this point, but he's the only one who can tell you exactly what happened. What can't be argued is that that was a hell of a way to lose a ball game.

Up over and out.

Dave, you're right about those line drives, they can be very tricky. It looks like Holliday got caught in a bad glove position -- he could not figure out whether to go above or below the ball with the glove, if you know what I mean.

Now hold on a minute, quit making excuses for the guy, try and remember that after he bumbled the ball, he also stumbled on his own feet and took a belly flop that would put him in the Keystone Cops movies.

[ghost of miles]

I just feel bad for Holliday.

I also had hopes that the Yankees might make it all the way to the WS to face the Cards--would be a nice, historical rematch of that '64 series (still need to read Halberstam's book about it). That's looking much less likely now on the NL end of things.

[Matthew]

Nice, newly found footage of Babe Ruth. Story and film here. Edited October 9, 2009 by Matthew

[Chalupa]

Nice, newly found footage of Babe Ruth. Story and film here.

Thanks for posting that.

[JETman]

I don't think you should come down too hard on Holliday. Of course he's a major league ball player and of course he should be able to field his position, but let's not fool ourselves, he's in the lineup for his bat, not his glove. I'm not bragging, but I've played a fair amount of outfield both in baseball and 25 years of slow pitch softball. Balls that are hit directly at you are the hardest ones to judge. Also, depending on how they're hit, they can do some pretty funny things. On more than a few occasions, I've had them act like someone has thrown you a darn good knuckle ball. Other times, the balls are hit with a lot of spin and they can move quickly to your right or left making it hard to react quickly to what's happening. They can also drop or rise. I haven't heard any interviews with the perp at this point, but he's the only one who can tell you exactly what happened. What can't be argued is that that was a hell of a way to lose a ball game.

Up over and out.

Dave, you're right about those line drives, they can be very tricky. It looks like Holliday got caught in a bad glove position -- he could not figure out whether to go above or below the ball with the glove, if you know what I mean.

Now hold on a minute, quit making excuses for the guy, try and remember that after he bumbled the ball, he also stumbled on his own feet and took a belly flop that would put him in the Keystone Cops movies.

The ball hit him in the chops, fer God's sake. It's as foolish as I've ever seen an outfielder look in all my time watching baseball. I hope the Mets do NOT go after him. At Citi, they need outfielders who can actually field.

[WorldB3]

Those same Dodger fans don't even show up to their own ballpark to support their own team. The place is half empty everytime I see the Bums play on TV at home. Personally, I don't think LA fans deserve a pro team....except maybe the Lakers. The NFL sure thought so and just sat by as Georgia Fontiere yanked the Rams out of LA.

So, saying Dodger fans don't care about the rivalry isn't quite true....they don't care about supporting their own team, either.

Yet the Dodgers lead all of MLB Baseball this year in attendance.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance

If you remember back in Spring Training the Dodgers said that their rival going into the year were the DBacks since the Dbacks came in second in 08 and won NL West in 07 while the Giants were under 500 those years.

Just because when your team is playing the Dodgers and TO YOU its the most important thing in the world the actual players might feel differently. For what its worth I am happy the Giants are good again and the rivalry this year TO US THE FANS was more exciting because of the Giants improvement, their improvement obviously made it for a more exciting rival for the players on both teams also.

Edited October 9, 2009 by WorldB3

[WorldB3]

Ghost, I loved the October 1964 Halberstam book also. It was such a shame he passed they way he did.

I once worked with a young Yankee fan and told him about how great the book was and he said, did the Yankees win the WS that year? When I said no he said well why would I want to read that?

[Johnny E]

Did something get erased?

Edited October 9, 2009 by Johnny E

[Use3D]

Yeah it did, I highly recommend you refrain from trolling other members over some comment made in another thread. Sure you feel the need to defend yourself, despite whatever validity was in that statement, but that thread is closed, so get over it. Take it up in a private message, but don't bring that crap into other topics.

[Johnny E]

Yeah it did, I highly recommend you refrain from trolling other members over some comment made in another thread. Sure you feel the need to defend yourself, despite whatever validity was in that statement, but that thread is closed, so get over it. Take it up in a private message, but don't bring that crap into other topics.

I hear ya' Jim.

Movin' on...

Go Phils!

Edited October 10, 2009 by Johnny E

[Chalupa]

Welcome Caleb Michael Hamels. 6.9 lbs, 21 inches and blonde hair.

[ghost of miles]

Congratulations!

Well, unless NY pulls off a helluva 9th inning, looks like we've got a series on our hands... Twins' bullpen definitely outdueling the Yanks' tonight. MN will go home holding the upper hand.

[Matthew]

[Chalupa]

Wow. A rare clutch hit TWO clutch hits in the same post-season game from ARod. Who would've thunk it possible?

[ghost of miles]

Unbelievable! A-Rod singles in Jeter with two outs to tie it in the 6th and then homers to tie it again in the bottom of the 9th... 5 RBI so far this series, and this game is ON again. We're going into the 10th!

[Dan Gould]

Well, at least Nathan didn't lose it, and the question becomes whether or not the Yankees go to Rivera for another inning. Girardi was quoted as saying Rivera would get four outs in a game, no more. They've burned through Joba, Hughes, Coke and Rivera otherwise.

In other words, the shit that occupies the rest of the Yankee bullpen is all that's left.

[Matthew]

Nathan has completely lost his mind and composure.

[Chalupa]

They need to get him out of there.

Actually I was kinda surprised they brought back after he blew it in the 9th. That sounds like something Cholly might do w/ Lidge