Baseball Journal 8-18-13

I saw some great crowds there at Wrigley on Wednesday and Sunday.  Who needs a winning record?  On Sunday, there was quite a bit of red in the stands as the Cubs were playing the Cardinals, who won 6-1.  Sorry for killing the drama there, but there wasn’t much on the field either.  Now in the bleachers, it was a different story.  One big kid in Cardinal gear was sitting next to a smaller kid in Cub gear, and they were hitting and poking each other for the whole game.  The cameras couldn’t stay away from them.  “It’s the classic battle of power versus speed,” opined JD.  The song, “Why Can’t We be Friends,” by War was played over a montage of their epic conflict.  They did leave together with some adults, so perhaps the kids are friends when baseball loyalties aren’t getting in the way. 

It was unfortunate that the broadcasters used that song at that time.  They could have used it later.  The home plate umpire made, “one of the worse check swing calls I’ve ever seen,” as Len noted.  The Cubs manager was ejected after a little improvisational theater with the ump.  The crowd proceeded to boo for the rest of the inning.  I think even the Cardinals fans were joining in.

Castro made a couple of great plays at shortstop, clearly trying to atone for being publicly pulled from last night’s game after committing a non-thinking defensive play that scored a run.  Rizzo made an awesome play on a foul ball, going over the Cardinal dugout railing.  Even several fans made great plays in the stands.  Then Alfonso Soriano, erm Junior Lake (hey, it’s a lanky Black guy with high socks in the outfield, anybody could make that mistake), drops a fly ball that lets in two runs. 

The Rangers beat the Cowboys Saturday night, literally scoring more runs in one inning than the Cowboys did for the whole game.  Forgive me if I don’t have the complete totals here, but in the bottom of the 8^th, the Rangers scored eight runs, including three infield hits and a suicide squeeze.  The Mariners contributed two errors, not counting the infield hits or a fly ball in the outfield that should have been caught.  Regardless, the Rangers lost the other two games in the series to the M’s.  Bad losses, guys.  You’ve got another two weeks against sub 500 teams.  Don’t blow it.   

Yeah, speaking of the Cowboys, I’d comment on Fox’s baseball game of the week, but it was preempted for a pre-season Cowboys football game on my local affiliate.  Surely they could have broadcast one or the other on their alternate digital station.  What’s really galling was it was like the worst football game ever played.  I only experienced about a half-hour of it, but that was enough.  I’d rather have watched soccer than that crap.  (Admittedly, either of the two baseball games we might have gotten were blowouts among teams I don’t really care about.  So, no loss.) 

Anything else happen this week?  A-Rat, erm A-Roid, erm Alex Rodriguez may have recommended Biogenesis to Ryan Braun and a Yankee teammate and then subsequently ratted them out to MLB.  His lawyers are accusing the Yankees of playing him while injured last year and having the doctor mess up his hip surgery in order to end his career and collect insurance on his contract.  Just another typical day in the Yankee locker room.  I’m sure it’s not awkward in there. 

It’d be nice to think that after his $275 million contract, which resulted in one World Series championship for the Yankees, and Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton big contract flame outs with the Angels (to this point), other MLB teams might reconsider some of their big-ticket purchases.  Then these same teams will look at the big spending Dodgers, who just tied a 50 game record, and decide they’re not spending enough to be competitive.  Yeah, it’s just a question of money, in volume, not quality of use.  I’m rooting against the Dodgers this season on this basis.  Yankee economics are not good for the game.  (And Dodgers aren’t going to win the World Series this year anyway.)     

And I guess I have to reluctantly comment on the MLB planning on implementing expanded instant replay next season.  They’re planning on putting in a challenge system for the managers like they have in the NFL.  I suppose this is being done because MLB feels the need to fix their games like the NFL does.  Everyone saying this system will be a good thing, will be eating their words and making excuses in short order right after it’s put in.  You think umps are bad now, wait until they start thinking that they don’t have to get calls right anymore because replay will fix it.  (Just like the NFL.)  And say, “Hello,” to five hour, nine inning Yankee-Red Sox games.  People will be referring to “instant replay,” as “lengthy delay.”  (And they’ll still get calls wrong.)  Replay calls will be adjudicated at a control center in New York City.  I can only assume this means that the MLB Fan Cavers will finally have a real job for the season.