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.
