Frayed Knot

3 innings, 1 hour 23 minutes

So far this is the game of multi-pitch ABs

What good is shorter baseball if the pace of the game still plods along at its current pace?!?!?!? That's not faster baseball it's LESS baseball and if you want less baseball then the solution is easy, hit the Off button. Less baseball is what haters of baseball want; well they don't actually want less they want None but are willing to settle for less as a starting point. The problem isn't merely that 3-1/2 hour games are becoming more common as 2-1/2 hour ones increasingly fade into distant memory, it's that these 3-1/2 hour versions have the same amount of content as their 2-1/2 hour predecessors as the lords of the game wonder where they went wrong. And before we decide that nobody younger than the average age of this board will ever watch another game (as if kids with short attention spans was just invented in the last decade or so) maybe, just maybe mind you, they might be more interested in watching, and able to watch, if the games were occasionally in the day time, if the night ones were over prior to 11 PM, and if playoff games didn't each have the same running time as the GODFATHER SAGA. And the most frustrating part is that a speeding up of the pace of play is possible without resorting to gimmicks or the excising of nearly 25% of content. Again, it's not just that these gimmicks are new or that they're an affront to old geezers like me, it's that they're being passed off as solutions to problems which they're ill suited to fix while actual fixes are being ignored kicked down the road.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: =batmagadanleadoff post_id=94961 time=1654531646 user_id=68] I don't know if there was ever a full on ban preventing active players from doing beer ads but players were banned from wearing their uniforms while doing those ads. That's probably still true. Explains why they're only shown having beer in street clothes--plus from an ad perspective, turns them from supermen to regular beer-drinking guys like you and me.

Over the years in various softball teams I was on we'd occasionally allow IFR-elgible pop-ups to drop just to see how well the runners knew the rules. The rule of course states that the batter is automatically out and the runners can advance at their own risk. Some however, seeing the ball hit the dirt, would think that they had to run and so we'd get a DP that way (don't think we ever scammed a TP) since the batter was already the first out. oe: and considering the misunderstanding of rules we've seen just in the last week [balls his past fielders hitting runners, relief pitcher eligibility] it wouldn't be surprising to see runners fooled during dropped IFR calls at the ML level on occasion.

Wow. Expanded playoffs were about increased income? Thanks.

The Angels were a quite respectable 10 games over .500 12 days ago and looked like at least a potential contender for division supremacy. Now they're a game below ... and sinking fast. Not coincidentally, Trout is sitting on an 0h-fer-27 at the moment (w/2 BB & 10 K). His last safety was a 5th inning double on May 27th, the 3rd game of the losing streak.

Or they could just, y'know, play baseball.

This week ended with lots of broomage, much of it in our own division: Yanx swept the Tiggers Boston swept Oakland Braves swept the Rox Phils swept the Angels Padres swept Milwaukee And while the Nats didn't technically sweep the Reds, they did take three straight after dropping the first in a four game set The A's are the victims of back to back series sweeps. The Angels, now losers of 11 straight, were swept back-to-back-to-back (TOR x 4, Yanx x 3, Phils x3, plus a loss to Texas to start the streak) The Angels/Phils on Sunday to extend that LAA losing streak was ridiculous. Anaheim led 5-0, 6-2, and 7-6, losing those last two leads on a 2-out 8th inning Grand Slam (Harper) and then a 2-out / 9th inning / full count / 3R walk-off HR (Stott)

The ghost runner was instituted for Covid reasons obviously, mainly to reduce long games and the travel issues those can cause. Whether one thinks it was the right solution at the time is almost besides the point now. That they were extended into this season on the excuse that the delayed season and reduced spring training created "safety" concerns is, well, concerning because it comes off as a justification rather than a real reason. More concerning still is that the DH was a rule, also originally short-term, created to combat issues, real or perceived, that turned out to be both temporary and not really related to the causes of the supposed problems it was designed to fix. And now, half a century later, it's cast in stone. The problem isn't that extra inning games take too long, it's that the game takes too long just to get to the point where you arrive at extra innings.

Speaking of a confused Dave Roberts, unless there was no one on his bench -- and I mean No One including a recently retired coach maybe who could somehow be insta-activated -- I was stunned that he let Eddy Alvarez hit in that spot [2-out, 9th inning, down one, following the Taylor double]. I mean, it worked [first pitch game-tying single] but Alvarez is 32 y/o with just over 100 ML PAs under his belt, a .198/.292/.292 career slash line, has been a Dodger for like an hour and a half, and at this point is better known for the novelty that he's a baseball player considering his Miami- born/ice skating background, then he is for anything he's actually done As a baseball player.

Sure, but Edwin was a bit erratic himself in the 8th and, while I don't think bringing him back for the 9th would have been the Wrong move, had he blown up in the 9th Buck would have been subject to at least as much scrutiny as he was/is for not doing so. I liked the strategy as a whole and it was unfortunate that Lugo faltered but I don't think the wrong choice.

Chad ochoseis wrote: Mets win series 2-2! I thought of this same headline (while admitting it's a total steal from the Harvard Crimson)

Dabid was a sure bet too ... until he wasn't.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: I don't know how you penalize a between innings defensive rulebreaking. There's a remedy for batting out of order (batter out); should they give the Mets an additional out? Easy, either he brings in a cold guy or he can continue with the one who finished up the last inning. What, is that guy somehow unable to come back out because he already has his feet up, slippers on, and is halfway through his first Budweiser?

Lefty Specialist wrote: I enjoyed Graterol's disbelief that the ball went out even though Pete just flicked at it. The old 'Let the hard-throwing pitcher supply the power' theory. So what was this umpire screw-up thing I missed all about?

Anyone for an early shower? Buehler ... Buehler?

Pete's error and the walk to Lux killed this inning.

It was still the right play to go for the GIDP. Pete had bad footwork on the play and sailed the throw.

No results that inning but some well-,struck balls.

=nymr83 post_id=94683 time=1654395496 user_id=54] I came here just to say that. Dodgers pants in particular need to be put away permanently.

I probably should have thought of that one, but I didn't and so decided to be a wise ass instead.

That's a depiction of that time when two players suddenly started making out on 2nd base, right?

Stop not hitting!!!

In their last five games combined -- three vs LAA & two vs DET -' the Yanx have allowed a total of 3 runs on 20 hits. They've scored 33 over those same five.