Frayed Knot

That was chance-y and that was close.

Wow! Ortiz now with 7 of the Sox' 20 hits in the series (and their only two HRs). Not going to win a long series spacing out the hits that way.

McCarver has stumbled over his words several times in this series. Even those who didn't like him all along would probably not cite that as one of his faults. Maybe he's getting out at the right time. Meanwhile, the Cards continue to take advantage of every BoSox mistake. They're not hitting all that well and didn't during the LA series either (except for the final game) but they seem to hit about .900 following walks, errors, or passed balls.

They say unintended obstruction is obstruction. So good call, great new way to see a ballgame end. Too bad it's a World Series game Boston.As for the direction Jim Joyce is facing, it looks like he is following the throw, to see if it went into the stands or if a fan touched the ball. From the replays I saw this morning, the home plate ump made the interference call. No, a wider shot where you can see that entire side of the diamond shows Joyce turning back and clearly making the call with the home plate ump acknowledging it immediately afterward. On an obstruction call the obstruction is indicated (as it was by Joyce) but play is allowed to continue. Only after the play is over does it become a judgement call as to whether or not they believe the obstruction prevented the runner from safely advancing. The home ump did so immediately by signaling safe despite the obvious tag (and Craig never touching the base) and quickly pointed toward 3B as the reason. Sox fans may remember a similar play from a playoff game a few years ago where they benefitted. In that one, Oakland's Miguel Tejada was obstructed rounding 3rd but then stopped halfway to home to complain about it. Because he did he was not awarded the base, just as had Craig been out by a larger margin last night the umps could have still called him out despite the obstruction*. What's kind of funny is that, between the reversed dropped-ball call at 2nd in Game 1 and now this obstruction deal in Game 3, we've had two of the three games ending with one of the managers giving a near identical post-game quote along the lines of: 'maybe it was technically the right call but, in that situation, it's a tough one to swallow' * That was what should have happened in that Zeile/Knoblauch obstruction call during the inter-league game a bunch of years back. If you recall that one, not only did the 1st base ump allow coach Mazzilli to talk him into the obstruction but it was one where Knoblauch barely had to dip his shoulder in order to get around Zeile and wound up being out by about 17 feet despite only slightly breaking stride.

Zvon wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: I'm just not sure that a runner tripping over a prone fielder qualifies as obstruction. What's the rule? Does it have to be intentional or does that matter in any way? Because that wasn't intentional. I guess technically Middlebrooks, because he didn't have the ball, can't block the runner from trying to advance. The rule is, that once obstruction is indicated, the play is allowed to play out and it becomes a judgement call as to whether the runner would have advanced had he not been interfered with. Craig was clearly out at home but had he not fallen over the prone Middlebrooks he probably would have made it. McCarver is saying that intent has nothing to do with it which, while true, doesn't mean that every UNintentional obstruction results in an automatic free base.

3B ump indicated obstruction immediately so the home plate ump had no choice but to call the runner safe. I'm just not sure that a runner tripping over a prone fielder qualifies as obstruction. Amazing that the Cards have now won two games largely because of bad throws from home to 3rd.

metirish wrote: metirish wrote: Why are the Cardinals wearing tops sporting St.louis at home? That's their (new this season I believe) alternate third jersey which they wear only on home Saturdays. Normally both their home and road jerseys have the same script 'Cardinals' on them, just differing in the gray or white. thanks FK...they are nice... See the articles BatMags posted at the end of the previous page on this thread. The NYTimes article talks all about this particular uni and the StL obsession with them.

I kind of like this strategy by Farrell and the Sox -- let your pitcher hit because it's Rosenthal's 2nd and probably last inning and with 8-9-1 you probably weren't going to score anyway. Yeah, you still have to hold the Cards in the bottom half but, if you do, it's Victorino-Pedroia-Papi in the 10th with Martinez and Rosenthal out of the game.

metirish wrote: Why are the Cardinals wearing tops sporting St.louis at home? That's their (new this season I believe) alternate third jersey which they wear only on home Saturdays. Normally both their home and road jerseys have the same script 'Cardinals' on them, just differing in the gray or white.

If the Red Sox had even average arms in left field they might have won Game 2 and would only be down 1-0 so far here. But neither Gomes on Thursday or Nava tonight showed anything approaching a decent gun.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Ashie62 wrote: Gold Gloves are like the Oscars..You usually have to be around awhile to get one. And it's got to be the right, showy kind of good to win one. And usually, by the time you do get one, it's not for your best work, and often for one of your lesser works. And when you do win that one, it's more of a lifetime-achievement thing/makeup for not getting one than it is a reward for your actual field achievement. And your offense matters. It shouldn't, but it does.

And, appropriately enough, this was posted on the anniversary of the game. Or, as we call it around here, Happy Buckner Day.

Williams is official per espn via Fox. All ESPN is doing there is agreeing with what they and everyone else read via FOX--which was the source of the story in the first place. But just because ESPN has a habit of taking credit for everything whether they had anything to do with it or not, the act of them "confirming" (read: repeating) someone else's news doesn't make it any more official than it was yesterday. The only point about treating this as not yet official is that the club hasn't announced anything due to the moratorium on outside news during the World Series. I don't think anyone doubts that this is true and that a press conference with terms and details will come sometime next week.

How often do you see bench coaches who are part owners? I guess he got that as a going away present as his playing career wound down. Or maybe, as in the case of Lemieux and the Penguins, the team hit a cash crunch and couldn't afford to pay him all the deferred money so gave him piece of the org instead.

I don't understand how this "finalist" thing works. The GGs are an award voted on by managers and coaches. Did MLB narrow the roster of candidates first and only allow the Mgrs to vote on those, or were the votes already cast and counted and the only reason for this finalist list is to build anticipation by leaking the top finishers? It's kind of funny that with all the complaining about the job that the writers do with MVP, RoY, CY, etc., the one vote that's done essentially in house is the one that's a virtual certainty to be the worst of the lot.

Sources (originally FOX's Ken Rosenthal) say Matt Williams to manage the Nats. Official announcement could be delayed until after the WS.

And yet Carlos Martinez had a 5+ ERA and 1.4+ WHiP this season. He then seemed to turn the corner once he hit September with only one bad outing out of nine. IOW, he caught fire just as former closer Mujica was turning to shit so Rosenthal took Mujica's spot while Martinez simply became the new Rosenthal and both are now untouchable.

After Papi smacked the first pitch he saw off the lefty reliever in Game 1, I would have left Martinez in there too. Relievers who don't let hitters get the ball out of the infield sure do make managers look smart.

I was at MSG watching a Ranger game that night. Some guy in the next row overheard one of my group wondering about the series and told us of the earthquake. Thought he was kidding at first, but at the concession stands you could see, although not hear, the films of the destruction, fires, etc.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: ESPN radio playing a Rangers game instead of the World Series. Getting staticy signal instead from 970 am in Hackensack. Are you kidding me? That's why the Mets didn't want to take their radiocasts to ESPN, too many conflicts. And with the national broadcasts, baseball often isn't the Four-Letter Network's top priority.

metirish wrote: Gomes is a winner...has he ever actually won anything? Hey, he's been on three -- COUNT 'EM, THREE -- post-season teams during his eleven year career! His first two teams lost in the first round. This BoSox team is his third. IOW, he's now 2-2 in playoff series for his career.

Ceetar wrote: metirish wrote: Incredible, so vaseline is the brand name and not the actual product?, we should be calling it petroleum jelly? Learn something new everyday. Dumpster is a brand name as well. IIRC, Xerox is an example of a company which lost control over its name, at least in one aspect. Because XEROX had introduced the first marketable paper copier, the phrase 'making a Xerox copy' was used so often to describe the process that it was eventually ruled to have become common enough in general use that it was no longer something the company could claim as a copyright. Obviously that doesn't mean another company could manufacture a copy machine and simply stamp the name XEROX on it, but they could not be legally barred for saying their product was great for making "xerox copies" of your tax returns. Vaseline, Dumpster, and even Velcro I believe, remain copyrighted names despite their use in common language.

Yeah, did you see/read about the backtracking that guy who Twitter-threatened Jacobs was doing? As soon as he got outed, his anger over losing fantasy points was suddenly replaced by an even worse pain: the one where his hero publicly trashes over social media.

Frayed Knot wrote: Y'know what the best formula for building a championship is? ... Have all the shit you did go right for you at the same time and have as few injuries as possible. Once you master that "skill" you'll get more after-the-fact praise than you know what to do with and your "method" will be declared the new trend. Looking into this a bit: The Cardinals, who platooned at SS, got 500 or more plate appearances this season from the other 7 positions. Allen Craig was their big injury and he missed all of 3 weeks (plus the first two post-season rounds). 3 other players got between 300 & 400 PAs And the BoSox also got 500 PAs from 7 different players and between 300 & 400 from 3 others. I kept hearing how injured Ellsbury was all season yet he got over 600 PAs By contrast, the Mets had ONE player over 500 (Muffy) and the Yanx had 3

Centerfield wrote: By the way, does anyone even question that there is someone watching the replay and relaying this to the home plate ump so he can reverse clearly blown calls? I'm usually not a conspiracy theorist, but to me, the conversation in the huddle goes something along the lines of: "Ok, guys, upstairs is saying that call was clearly blown. Can all five of you guys start nodding in agreement? Ok, Dana, pretend to object. Ok, now let's all nod. I'll go tell Matheny." Not so much a bug in the ear but they absolutely showed the replay on the big screen at the park (you could hear the crowd reaction on at least two different occasions) which makes you wonder if any or all of the other five umps saw it there and decided to correct the call on that basis.