Centerfield

Holy crap. That is an awesome story. Keep up the good work guys.

I hate this PaulO'Neillesque behavior. Not that I would EVER defend True Yankee Paul O'Neill, but I'm ok with behavior like that. I think it's perfectly fine to throw a helmet, slam a bat, curse if you're frustrated. Intensity is part of the game, and I'd take a guy who shows some emotion over an overly apathetic player any day. So if a player in the midst of a brutal slump throws his bat after striking out in a key spot in the game, I'm ok with that. The time that it becomes a problem is when you do it as frequently as Paul O'Neill did it....seemingly after every strikeout or loss, you would see him throw some type of fit. And that of course, is when it becomes childish and silly. You can't go 4 for 4 every night. You shouldn't throw your bat when your team leads 8-0. This is why I hated Paul O'Neill. I also don't like his whiny little voice.

mlb, You need to tell us more about him, and then demand another Met.

Oh and before I forget...what on earth is wrong with Aaron Neville? Did anyone else hear that version of "God Bless America"? Good lord Aaron sucks.

I'm waiting for the Onion to write an article announcing the "Regular White Guy Legends" team.

Dear Frank, How tough was it to have to sit out the World Series after having been such a productive player all those years? Did you know you and Jeff Bagwell have the same birthday? Did you juice? Some people think your injuries are a result of prolonged steroid use. Did you notice there were no black players on the Astros?

I want to do such a good job at my closing tomorrow that my clients, the title company, and the bank attorneys throw me in the air at the end of it all. I love sports.

The best part about this celebration is you can cure your BoBeer hangover with Benny Bean coffee. (Couldn't find a pic of Benny Beans online, how is that possible?)

In other news, Clemens scheduled to go Game 5, if necessary, because there is nothing really wrong with him.

"After Lotte reliever Masahide Kobayashi walked Atsushi Kataoka to leadoff the ninth..." Freakin' Kobayashi always gotta make it interesting... Honestly, how much do you miss these guys?

This was when Chiba Lotte clinched a spot in the Japan Series. Look at how high they're tossing Bobby! Imagine if they actually win it all? And for the record, I would never get tossed in the air in a situation where I'm relying on someone named "Matsui" to catch me...

I like Tim McCarver. I liked him as a kid, and I still like him now. The forkball/splitter thing is a good example of how, even at this age, there's always a chance you will learn something new by listening to him. I don't think his humor works as well as it used to, and I don't think Derek Jeter is quite as good as he thinks he is, but if those are your biggest complaints, you have a pretty good announcer. Besides, Steve Lyons, Joe Morgan...these guys can't hold a candle to him. I suspect the reason there is so much hate for McCarver is because he's on TV frequently, after all, John Madden was also on that list. I bet if you polled, he'd be among the more popular announcers too. And with the home team thing, McCarver is not a homer or a shill. So if a fan is accusomted to listening to guys like Sterling, or Skip Carey, to that fan, McCarver will appear to be biased against that team when in fact, McCarver is simply not ridiculously biased in favor of that team.

Marines "M" cap. http://www.yakyushop.net/proddetail.php?prod=CM2027&cat=8

Chiba Lotte Jerseys: http://www.yakyushop.net/proddetail.php?prod=JM1096&cat=7 *Edited to fix link to 2005 Road Jersey

Is Shinjo on that team? Wasn't he on it last year?

Next year I'm starting the BoBeer PoTG polls to battle the Schaefer ones. All voting will be in Japanese.

I just checked. WhereisRoger.com is no longer. A shame. It was a wonderful site.

The 2000 World Series needed Phil Cuzzi.

Btw, when Clemens wussed out in Game 1, did anyone think about the way he blew up at the ump in Game 4 of the 1990 ALCS? That was when Clemens was ejected in the second inning after giving up the lead and then left his bullpen to work their way out of the bases loaded one out situation. If I ever hear again about what a "gamer" that fuckhead is I'll lose it...

There is even a beer named for Valentine, Bobeer, which raised money for a child's heart transplant. Coolest thing ever.

Brantley's an idiot. Accusing someone of "falling in love" with one pitch or another is idiotic. Let's say a pitcher throws a fastball by a hitter for strike 1. If he throws a slider on his second pitch that gets hit for a HR, he will be accused of changing pitches "even after the hitter has demonstrated he can't hit the fastball". If he throws another fastball that gets hit for a HR, he "falls in love with one pitch." The problem is usually not the pitch selection, it's pitch quality. But analysts would sound awfully boring just repeating "well, he needs to make a better pitch..." Couple other notes...am I the only one wishing Konerko would stop hitting these post-season HR's and driving his cost up? Am I the only one wishing Billy Wagner wasn't out there blowing saves like Jenks and Lidge and thereby driving his price down? Exactly twice in this post-season, I got the feeling fans were too giddy in the ninth inning...as if the thought of a blown save never entered their minds....Game 5 of the NLCS and last night. Jose Freakin' Vizcaino. As if I needed to be reminded of that. I still say Turk made a good pitch there...

Armando Benitez was not a choker. This was something I wrote on this topic sometime early in the 2003 season. Myth: Armando Benitez sucks. I believe that this sentiment is more of an exclamation uttered in the heat of the moment rather than an actual criticism of Armando. Even the harshest critic will admit that since he has taken over the reigns as closer for the New York Mets, few have been more successful than Armando. During the last three years, Armando has converted 90% of his save opportunities. Only 13 pitchers have recorded 100 saves since 1999. Of that group, only Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman have better save percentages. This guys is the goods...no doubt about it. Myth: Armando Benitez may be a great closer, but he can�t hack it in the Post-Season. Because of the overwhelming success he�s had in recent years, critics cannot realistically say that Armando hasn�t developed into one of the top closers in baseball. However, a good number of people believe that despite his recent success, Armando has demonstrated an inability to duplicate such success in the post-season. They argue that his strong regular seasons have been followed by meltdowns in October. True? Let�s take a look.... Now, it is important to note here that proponents of this theory often cite to Armando��s post-season performance while pitching for Baltimore. This, of course, is a logical fallacy. If the argument is that dominant regular seasons are followed by underwhelming post-season, we should only examine those post-seasons that follow dominant regular seasons. His underwhelming post-seasons in Baltimore were to be expected, as he was, for the most part, an underwhelming regular season pitcher. Not so for his days in New York. As a Met, he�s been dominant in the regular season. Did that dominance carry over? Or was there some dropoff? To test this theory, we look at his post-seasons that followed his dominant regular seasons. Two such examples exist. In 1999 Armando pitched 9 innings in the post-season and allowed one run. Though he was charged with a blown save, it was during a game in which he entered in the 8th inning and allowed an inherited runner to score. Armando did not allow a run in that game. All in all, it is clear that Armando�s excellent regular season was followed by an excellent post-season. The theory, does not appear to hold water in this instance. In 2000, Armando Benitez pitched 9 innings and, this time, allowed 3 runs. Armando stumbled in this post-season as he converted only 2 of 4 save opportunities. We arrive upon the two games that provide the basis for this theory. Clearly, there has been a dropoff from regular season performance to post-season performance. Unfortunately, this �trend� is the result of two games. Now, perhaps this sample is enough to convince some that Armando has an inability to succeed in the post-season. For me, this sample is simply not large enough to be convincing. In total, Armando has converted 3 of 6 post-season save opportunities and has an ERA of 2.00. We all remember similar arguments being made about Randy Johnson��s inability to succeed in October...and what he did to such arguments in October of 2001. Or perhaps I am unconvinced because this �dropoff� in performance is not limited to Armando. Trevor Hoffman, Billy Wagner and Byung-Hyun Kim (closer for the 2001 World Champs) have combined to convert 6 of 11 save opportunities. Are we to believe that Armando, Trevor, Billy and BK are all chokers? Or is it possible that with more time, their numbers would even out with their peers who have had success in October? Draw what conclusions you will, but keep in mind this one nugget of information when considering small sample size. As I write this piece, Rey Ordonez�s batting average is nearly twice that of Mike Piazza��s. Big Rey also has more HR and RBI.... Myth: Armando Benitez Sucks in September. Fueled by the two September meltdowns against Atlanta in 2001, the theory has been offered that while Armando Benitez will mow down opponents from April through August, come September he will meltdown. This theory, is also false. Since 1999, Armando has converted 24 of 28 saves in the month of September for a save percentage of 86%. During that same period, he has converted 18 of 20 saves in April for a percentage of 90%. The big dropoff is, as the numbers indicate, simply untrue. Again, the critics seem to be basing their �trend� upon two games while ignoring the others in which Armando was successful. They have forgotten Armando�s strong Septembers during the stretch drives of 1999 and 2000. The rest of us, and the statistic books, have not. Myth: Armando Benitez Sucks in �Big Games�. And now, we have a last ditch effort by the Armando Critics to incorporate all of his memorable blown saves into one category...the famous �Big Game�. Essentially, the basis of all of the Armando criticism can be boiled down to four games: Game 2 of the 2000 NLDS (JT Snow HR), Game 1 of the 2000 WS (Yankees) and the two September games against the Braves in 2001. Unfortunately for the critics, since two were in the post-season and two were in the regular season, these failures of Armando do not fit nicely into one category. And so, they made one up. The ever-changing �Big Game� or alternatively, the �Big Spot�. The problem, of course, with this theory, is that its proponents must define �Big Game� and show that Armando�s performance drops off in these types of situations. Clearly, simply blowing a save in a big situation cannot establish a trend. Even Mariano Rivera has blown saves in two series deciding games (Game 5 against the Indians in 1997 and Game 7 2001 WS)...and no one could argue he has a history of big game failures. Rather, in order to establish any sort of trend, we must find out how many big games Armando has pitched in, and what his measure of success has been. And thus, we encounter the fatal flaw with this theory. The critics do not define their universe...they don��t give you a number for how many �big games� Armando has pitched in. Now, I don�t contest that these four games were �big�. But how many big games have there been? And how has Armando performed in these �big� spots? Clearly, if these four games were the only ones the Mets had played in recent history, their case would be made. But such is not the case. The Mets played a bundle of big games in September of 1999...and Benitez was brilliant. In that same Braves series in 2001, Benitez has converted saves in the two prior games. Benitez has pitched in �big spots� in the post-season where he wasn�t in a position to convert a save...shouldn�t he be credited for these? Have we forgotten that neither the Grand Slam Single or the Agbayani Game-Winner would have been possible without scoreless innings from Armando? Had he allowed a run and taken the loss, wouldn�t these be offered as �Big Game Failures�? Despite the failure of the critics to offer a number so a ratio can be measured, let��s define �Big Game� for them for the sake of argument. It appears that the proponents of this theory are combining his post-season blown saves with his September blown saves. So, let��s take a look at his success rate during this subset of games. Since 1999, Benitez has converted 27 of 34 save opportunities in September and the post-season for a save percentage of 79%. Now, there is some dropoff from his overall save percentage. Whether this difference is enough to be statistically significant may be up for debate. But it is clear that 79% is a far cry from the �meltdown� people have suggested. Myth: Benitez beats up on the bad teams but struggles against the good ones. Again, untrue. Benitez has converted 13 of 15 saves against Atlanta and the Yankees for a save percentage of 87%. Next. All in all, it seems as if the criticism of Armando Benitez is unwarranted. Rip into him if you like when he blows a save...it is the fan�s right to criticize. And no one can expect to be a closer in New York without hearing it from time to time. But make sure that your criticism is accurate. Don�t criticize for things that are myth. It�s tough enough to be a closer in this town as it is...they take a lot of heat for their actual failures. They shouldn�t have to take heat for failures that exist only in the minds of ill-informed fans.

McCarver: "And Joe, it's no coincidence that four former Yankees are starting in this World Series. This goes to show you the influence that a player like Derek Jeter has on a pitching staff...even years later, they're still exhibiting the benefits of having played next to him..."

Loss of a day-and-a-half means loss of "Grounded Out." Can't have that. I've lost about 300-odd posts and I'm back to being Tim Harkness.

Ba-dum ching! The five workers declined to comment whether Urbina's tendency to roll up his right sleeve instigated the incident.