ALDS Final thoughts
Well guess freaking what? The Yankees beat the vaunted Twins and the greatest pitcher eve in Johan Santana. I am so sick of hearing about the Twins and their great fans with their fucking homer hanky's and the same goes for Billie Bean, Money Ball, and the great young A's pitching staff for that matter. Neither of these franchises have done shit over the last 5 years, and all we do is get beaten over the head with how we disrespect them, you know how you get respect, you earn it by winning. So anyway back to the Yankees, yes it was another victory of the comeback variety.
Would any Yanks fan expect something else besides a comeback win. They have done it all year beacuse of their ability to advance runners by all means, patience to drive pitching counts up(which they did to Santana today and forced his manager to make a move), and their ability to hit with two strikes and/or two outs. They have so many guys who can step up. Today it happened to be Ruben Sierra and the $250 man A-Rod. Although I am beginning to wonder if Jorge Posada or Bernie Williams has a clutch bone left in their body? Sierra did what he does, he took breaking pitches and fouled some off until the pitcher was all but forced to throw him a fastball which he put into orbit. Once this happened even though the Twins were the home team, the Yankees had the advantage. Again that advantage is a guy by the name of Mariano Rivera. They new they had three innings to try and score, and that they did unconventionally. Alex Rodriguez, who played a marvelous series all around, doubled for the second time in three innings and then his baseball mind and instincts took over. Not being a speed demon he choose a perfect spot to steal third base, something nobody in the entire country expected, but again this man had 28 steals and was only thrown out 4 times. Now he put the pressure on the pitcher and catcher and looked what happened, a pass ball-A-Rod scores, and then Rivera closes it out. No shock to this Yankee fan.
Now we find ourselves back again against the dreaded Red Sox. I am not going to use this forum to bash the SAWX (although I should). Rather to just let you know that I have the utmost confidence in my team to emerge victorious. Both teams will have their rotations set up any way they would like. I have a feeling you might see the Yanks go Mussina, Brown, Leiber, and pray for rain (those who understand that obscure saying are truly baseball officianados). But be that as it may we still have three things going in our favor: Derek Sanderson Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and we are not the Boston Red Sox. So tell the Boston Herald we are on our way and we will see you all in Da Bronx Tuesday night.
Would any Yanks fan expect something else besides a comeback win. They have done it all year beacuse of their ability to advance runners by all means, patience to drive pitching counts up(which they did to Santana today and forced his manager to make a move), and their ability to hit with two strikes and/or two outs. They have so many guys who can step up. Today it happened to be Ruben Sierra and the $250 man A-Rod. Although I am beginning to wonder if Jorge Posada or Bernie Williams has a clutch bone left in their body? Sierra did what he does, he took breaking pitches and fouled some off until the pitcher was all but forced to throw him a fastball which he put into orbit. Once this happened even though the Twins were the home team, the Yankees had the advantage. Again that advantage is a guy by the name of Mariano Rivera. They new they had three innings to try and score, and that they did unconventionally. Alex Rodriguez, who played a marvelous series all around, doubled for the second time in three innings and then his baseball mind and instincts took over. Not being a speed demon he choose a perfect spot to steal third base, something nobody in the entire country expected, but again this man had 28 steals and was only thrown out 4 times. Now he put the pressure on the pitcher and catcher and looked what happened, a pass ball-A-Rod scores, and then Rivera closes it out. No shock to this Yankee fan.
Now we find ourselves back again against the dreaded Red Sox. I am not going to use this forum to bash the SAWX (although I should). Rather to just let you know that I have the utmost confidence in my team to emerge victorious. Both teams will have their rotations set up any way they would like. I have a feeling you might see the Yanks go Mussina, Brown, Leiber, and pray for rain (those who understand that obscure saying are truly baseball officianados). But be that as it may we still have three things going in our favor: Derek Sanderson Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and we are not the Boston Red Sox. So tell the Boston Herald we are on our way and we will see you all in Da Bronx Tuesday night.
2 Comments:
Ah, Spahn, Spain and pray for rain actually works better with the Astros, especially since no one seems to know who's starting Game 1 of the NLCS.
As for the Yanks and Sox, the series is going to start and end in the Bronx, Pedro will be Pedro and Terry Fran has an advantage that Grady Little didn't - he's got a man on his staff that if needed, he can call on three days rest and get a decent start, unlike every other team left in the playoffs.
If it were me, I would have started Pedro, just to save Shill for Game 6 and/or 7, but with Shill going tonight, there's no way he can pitch three times in the series without going on something ridiculous like two or one days rest.
WHATEVER WITH THE REST AND PITCH COUNTS ALREADY!!!
I'll post an excerpt from my column about this topic soon...
Walter Johnson OUT
OK, this is from my column going into Thursday's paper, but I figured any baseball fan would appreciate it and I've wanted to post part of one of my columns for a second and a half...
My satellite feed stayed solid long enough for me to watch the final Division Series end with Atlanta making their annual retreat from post-season play. While I watched the Braves buckle like a belt, a couple of thoughts jumped into my mind.
Although I may hate the Braves like Pig Pen hated showers, I will admit a dirty secret. If I could steal the Atlanta front office and put it in Shea Stadium, I would in a heartbeat.
Any pitcher that came up through the Braves organization, made the team and was then traded is no good. That’s because if Leo Mazzone can’t help you, you can’t be helped. Therefore, I can’t believe the Cardinals are any good with Jason Marquis as their No. 2 starter.
The fact that Bobby Cox and company won their 13th straight division title with only one world championship reminds me of the Buffalo Bills in the early 1990s, and the historian in me says in 20 years times, we’ll look at the Braves like we now look at the Minnesota Vikings of the 1970s, which means some of us won’t remember them at all.
For all you non-Super Bowl buffs, the Fran Tarkenton-led Vikes went to four Super Bowls between 1970 and 1977, but never won the big game.
The second thought deals with broadcasters and pundits disgracing the game I love. If I hear another announcer tell me about the pitch count, I might hurl a sneaker in the general direction of my television in anger.
USA Baseball has sent a recommendation to youth leagues across the country to monitor the number of pitches kids throw and we wonder why it seems like Americans will soon be a minority in the national pasttime.
First off, who is USA Baseball to say anything? In the four Olympic games where baseball was a medal sport, Stars and Stripes have brought home the gold only once and that was in 2000 with Tommy Lasorda as manager.
When Lasorda played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954, there were four-man rotations and pitchers routinely went over 225 innings in a season. From 1966 to 1980, Braves’ broadcaster Don Sutton averaged 248 innings a year, but in today’s era of health-conscious activities and coddling everyone from prima donnas to prisoners, I have to hear about every pitch Roy Oswalt throws once he reaches 80 pitches in the fourth inning.
Skip Carey OUT
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