You may, if you wish, discuss today’s Mets game. But you can’t make me join you.
7 thoughts on “Unspeakable”
It’s like the last week of the 1998 season all over again.
When Brian Lawrence got lit up this week, all I could think of was the Brian Bannister trade.
Not a Mets fan, but just saw the 3 game summary of the Phi-Met series and got a quick look at the interference call on the double play. What’s with that?! When I was in the minors many years ago, we were taught that as long as some part of our slide was over/near the bag, we could take him out. How can a runner be “out of the baseline” when he has his foot on the base?
And why don’t the Mets try to throw out base stealers? If you let the opponent turn every single or walk into a triple, you might get hurt.
Not a good week for Sox fans either….
Allow me to thank you again for the Bannister trade. He and Meche are developing into a solid 1-2 punch.
The Mets starters (other than Glavine) are a really bad matchup in that ballpark, because so many of them are flyball pitchers. Aside from that, they obviously have issues with the bullpen from top to bottom. With Wagner, there’s really nothing to be done but wait for him to snap out of it, which he should. As to the rest of them, I think bringing Joe Smith back might help, and I’d probably look at Pelfrey or Humber the rest of the way in the spots they’ve used Sele in. I’d also stop using Mota almost entirely. Schoenweiss has actually been better for a couple of months now, so perhaps he could handle more important work.
This is what I worry about as a Sox fan and what I would worry about as a Mets fan. Clearly both teams are making the playoffs and likely winning their divisions. That is not the issue. The Sox have had at least 5 separate occasions when they had the ability to throw a haymaker at the Yankees and they have failed every time. They don’t seem to be a team that seizes the moment and holds a team underwater until they stop breathing. The Mets seem to have a bit of that as well and that is definitely not a good attribute for the post-season.
On the interference call a couple of comments – First, the Phillies had a run pulled back (1/3 but no outs, so the interference call was worse than the double play) on a call on Carlos Ruiz right on top of the bag. Ruiz was called because he sort of barreled in waist high rather than sliding. I think what they called Anderson out for was going after Iguchi with his hands into the upper body, rather than sliding through his legs. The other thing I saw was that Anderson “chased” Iguchi on the slide, so that he slid directionally off the 1-2 base line rather than along that line reaching towards the pivot. Just because you touch the bag doesn’t mean you can then go anywhere to try and break up the play. I’m a Phillies fan, so I don’t pretend to be unbiased, but seeing the replay at live speed I wasn’t surprised at the call – it “looked” like interference.
And BTW – be grateful you aren’t Phillies fans. Dig a hole, rally back within a game or so, dig another hole, and repeat over and over again all season for five years. For once, I’d like it to yo-yo like that between a 7 game lead and a tie.
It’s like the last week of the 1998 season all over again.
When Brian Lawrence got lit up this week, all I could think of was the Brian Bannister trade.
Not a Mets fan, but just saw the 3 game summary of the Phi-Met series and got a quick look at the interference call on the double play. What’s with that?! When I was in the minors many years ago, we were taught that as long as some part of our slide was over/near the bag, we could take him out. How can a runner be “out of the baseline” when he has his foot on the base?
And why don’t the Mets try to throw out base stealers? If you let the opponent turn every single or walk into a triple, you might get hurt.
Not a good week for Sox fans either….
Allow me to thank you again for the Bannister trade. He and Meche are developing into a solid 1-2 punch.
The Mets starters (other than Glavine) are a really bad matchup in that ballpark, because so many of them are flyball pitchers. Aside from that, they obviously have issues with the bullpen from top to bottom. With Wagner, there’s really nothing to be done but wait for him to snap out of it, which he should. As to the rest of them, I think bringing Joe Smith back might help, and I’d probably look at Pelfrey or Humber the rest of the way in the spots they’ve used Sele in. I’d also stop using Mota almost entirely. Schoenweiss has actually been better for a couple of months now, so perhaps he could handle more important work.
This is what I worry about as a Sox fan and what I would worry about as a Mets fan. Clearly both teams are making the playoffs and likely winning their divisions. That is not the issue. The Sox have had at least 5 separate occasions when they had the ability to throw a haymaker at the Yankees and they have failed every time. They don’t seem to be a team that seizes the moment and holds a team underwater until they stop breathing. The Mets seem to have a bit of that as well and that is definitely not a good attribute for the post-season.
On the interference call a couple of comments – First, the Phillies had a run pulled back (1/3 but no outs, so the interference call was worse than the double play) on a call on Carlos Ruiz right on top of the bag. Ruiz was called because he sort of barreled in waist high rather than sliding. I think what they called Anderson out for was going after Iguchi with his hands into the upper body, rather than sliding through his legs. The other thing I saw was that Anderson “chased” Iguchi on the slide, so that he slid directionally off the 1-2 base line rather than along that line reaching towards the pivot. Just because you touch the bag doesn’t mean you can then go anywhere to try and break up the play. I’m a Phillies fan, so I don’t pretend to be unbiased, but seeing the replay at live speed I wasn’t surprised at the call – it “looked” like interference.
And BTW – be grateful you aren’t Phillies fans. Dig a hole, rally back within a game or so, dig another hole, and repeat over and over again all season for five years. For once, I’d like it to yo-yo like that between a 7 game lead and a tie.