McCarver's comment about breathing easy actually has relevance, now that it's the Rockies playing the Red Sox, with at minimum two games to be played a mile high.
The team breathing easiest? That would be Colorado. I'd like to see Ortiz leg out a sure double in that altitude. Actually, I'd like to see Ortiz do anything in a National League park. Who sits?
"The team that breathes the easiest wins."
...I didn't even come here to try to comment on that winner, but instead McCarver's insistence that the gyroball is a "glorified screwball*." I've heard this both times Matsuzaka has pitched in this series and both times I've said to the TV, "No. It is not a glorified screwball*. It is a slider that doesn't break."
I was intending to supply an article which contains quotes from the only pitcher who ADMITS to throwing a gyroball, C.J. Wilson, but the article has "expired" and so no quotes. However, I've watched a documentary on the gyroball and the guys who know what they're talking about (meaning NOT Tim McCarver) say it's a slider that doesn't break. Incidentally, that's what C.J. Wilson, a guy who knows what he's talking about because he throws the pitch and ADMITS TO IT (unlike Matsuzaka), says.
NOT A GLORIFIED SCREWBALL* but a SLIDER THAT DOESN'T BREAK (thus, a fastball that looks like a slider).
*from wikipedia, "A screwball is a baseball pitch that is thrown so as to break in the opposite direction of a slider." Gyroballs don't break, they just look like they're going to. See, that makes so much more sense.
"They called it ... tendinitis ... but really, they just wanted to shut him down for the season."
Really? Maybe he actually had tendinitis. Common baseball injury. Legit. If it's just tendinitis, it resolves itself in about two weeks.
But nah. Probably just wanted to shut him down (could have just ... not started him, if that were the case).
I think Tim McCarver made up a word earlier in this broadcast. I may have misheard, but I think it's more likely that he invented a word.
John Schuerholz is stepping down, Assistant GM Frank Wren will take his place. Apparently Wren is terrible. I'm not going to complain.
Cleveland! Boston! Arizona! Colorado! Cities and States! Rookies and Veterans! National League style and American League style (whatever that means)! Moneyball and ... Luck?
Yes!
Baseball!
Two days late, but I gotta say, that Red Sox-Angels game had me laughing. Let's play Youkilis to the opposite field, that makes sense because Lackey's pitching him away because his last at-bat was a home run. Then, let's have Lackey hang a breaking ball and pull it for a double. That's comedy. More comedic is playing Ortiz to pull ... and he hits an opposite field double.
Oh, that and Lackey just not pitching as well as everyone says he should. Who didn't see that coming?
The Red Sox with their "wait around for a home run" and the Angels with their "small ball" approach ... warms my heart to see the home runs come through over the basestealers. Those thieves!
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Oh! Jason Kendall on the post-season roster is amazing.
TBS guy, right before the Phillies-Rockies game began:
"The importance of the Phillies winning this game cannot be understated."
