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TRIPLE THREAT: NO HUSTLE
New York Post ^
| 7/27/02
| Phil Mushnick
Posted on 07/27/2002 2:40:22 PM PDT by Dales
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:07:50 PM PDT by Jim Robinson.
[history]
July 26, 2002 -- EVEN from his home in Sarasota, Fla., three seasons removed from Mets' telecasts, Tim McCarver's prescience as a Met analyst is eerie.
So it should've come as no surprise that Met call-up Marco Scutaro's first big league hit would be a triple, or that it would happen this past Monday night, or that afterward, on "Kiner's Korner," Scaturo would tell Ralph Kiner, McCarver's 16-year boothmate, that his job is to "Run hard to first base, play hard every game."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: baseball; lazyassballplayers; since1930; triples
This was posted over at the awesome "Baseball Primer" site that has a neat FR like weblog for various articles. I had to post this over here just to get the following over as well. John Brittain posted the top ten real reasons triples aren't being hit any more. #6 just plain cracked me up:
Top 10 *real* reasons more triples aren't being hit: 10. Decreased intellect due to steroid abuse causes player to pause at first and decide whether to turn left or right.
9. Better looking babes in the stands on the first base side than the third base side.
8. Bigger shortstops, takes longer to get around them.
7. Players dive head first into first base now (if it's so effective, why don't sprinters dive head first over the finish line--besides the obvious of course).
6. John Olerud.
5. Payroll disparity between large and small market teams (submitted by some geek in Milwaukee).
4. Legging out triples in not covered in the collective bargaining agreement.
3. Modern cups chafe too much.
2. Too many triples at Wendy's (submitted by an anonymous player on New York Mets).
1. New baseball etiquette: It's disrespectful to show up the outfielder with the noodle arm.
For those who don't make it over to the Baseball Primer site to read the comments- McCarver's argument is really really silly, unless ballplayers stopped hustling back in 1930.
1
posted on
07/27/2002 2:40:23 PM PDT
by
Dales
To: Dales
Personally, I get plenty enough miffed at the big bombers who just stand in the box watching their big bombs fly out in mock amazement. You hit one yard, just start running and run the damn thing out and don't show anyone up. You did the job, run it out, then onward and upward and give the man who threw the ball his props because you won't hit him yard every time out (well, not unless Preacher Roe or Jay Hook are resurrected, anyway).
Which causes me to think that there is yet another reason to cherish any chance you get to watch Ichiro Suzuki play baseball. He hits triples, and lots of them. Of course, he runs as though he has either a posse or an income tax collector on his tail. And on the rare occasion when he hits one out (rare? They either declare a state holiday or X-ray his bat when he hits one of his rare home runs), he runs it out like a legitimate professional. The big bombers are so busy watching their jacks that when they pop one up they're petrified to run one out lest they lose style points - and meanwhile, maybe two fielders lose it in the sun and oops! there's an error and maybe you got yourself to second base right off the, er, bat, because you were running it out like a pro and had a clean shot at profit off the other guy's mistake...
Damn, I miss Tim McCarver. My Mets made a huge mistake letting him go.
2
posted on
07/27/2002 3:22:30 PM PDT
by
BluesDuke
To: BluesDuke
Can't stand McCarver. Love Ichiro for the reasons you say. He plays halfway like someone who has a flaming bug up his ass, and half like someone who has a 10 year old's passion for the game.
3
posted on
07/27/2002 4:02:18 PM PDT
by
Dales
To: BluesDuke
BTW- did you know I am that rarest of birds... a Braves and Mets fan?
4
posted on
07/27/2002 4:03:00 PM PDT
by
Dales
To: Dales
How would you like to try being a Mets and a Red Sox fan? I could therefore present myself as living proof that schizophrenia and dual natures can be overcome - even in the 1986 World Series!
To be honest, I don't dislike the Braves. I also happen to think that just maybe Tom Glavine, and not Greg Maddux, will prove in the final wash cycle to have been the greatest pitcher in the franchise's history who isn't named Warren Spahn. (For that matter, I think one of the candidates for the most memorable moments should have been that fine day in 1963 that Spahn nailed his 20th win of the season - becoming, then and still, the oldest man in baseball history to win 20 games and the only one to win 20 or more thirteen times.) But I will always wonder why after all these years the Braves still don't get it about handling their pitching and end up, almost perenially, with a blown-out staff by the time the postseason comes. Those pitchers have deserved better than what their postseason performance papers show.
5
posted on
07/27/2002 5:23:14 PM PDT
by
BluesDuke
To: BluesDuke
Yeah, but I think the pitchers' lack of success in the playoffs has more to do with a reliance on the bats of Mark Lemke or Keith Lockhart and so forth and a perpetually weak hitting bench than being overworked. I haven't looked it up, but going off of memory I believe their pitching numbers outside of W-L have been pretty solid.
That 86 series was something else. I had yet to move to Georgia. I was in college, in a fraternity which seemed to be overrun with people from Mass who were diehard Red Sox fans. As a matter of fact, I was a mere pledge at the time.
I remember being hazed BADLY by them, them drunk off their asses and simultaneously getting me hammered as I catered to them (all in good fun).
Then single. Single. Single. Wild pitch. And a slow roller.
That playoff year was the best I can remember. I remember Mike Scott being unhittable. I remember Nolan Ryan pitching a one-hitter (and finding out afterwards it was on a broken ankle) but Gooden holding him off and the Mets winning in 10. I remember a comeback just as wild as game 6 sparked by my favorite player at the time, Len Dykstra.
And the AL wasn't any worse, with Dave Henderson trying to singlehandedly win it.
What a year that was. It was a prime example of why that game sucks me in. When it is right, there is nothing better.
6
posted on
07/27/2002 5:33:50 PM PDT
by
Dales
To: Dales
And I remember the Sox looking like just maybe they would win game 7, jumping out to an early lead. But everyone knew it wouldn't last. I don't think there was a single fan in NY or Boston who thought that, even as Sid Fernandez came into the game trailing by a few runs, the Sox would win.
And when El Sid struck out the side, and the crowd erupted, it was inevitable. The die was cast.
My memory is fading on it. I believe Darryl hit a home run. I think Knight had another hit.
But I'll never forget Jesse Orosco, who is still pitching I think, throwing his mit to the moon after the last strikeout.
Damn, that was awesome. Even better than my Giants beating the Bills, I think. And NOTHING is better than my Giants winning.
7
posted on
07/27/2002 5:38:00 PM PDT
by
Dales
To: Dales
Yeah, but I think the pitchers' lack of success in the playoffs has more to do with a reliance on the bats of Mark Lemke or Keith Lockhart and so forth and a perpetually weak hitting bench than being overworked. I haven't looked it up, but going off of memory I believe their pitching numbers outside of W-L have been pretty solid.
I think it's been the bullpen more than the rotation that peters out come the postseason - Glavine and Maddux have respectable numbers, and Smoltz in his starting years was Mr. Reliable. They've been beaten mostly by a lack of bullpen durability; their bench was actually pretty decent by and large. But they're proof that if you don't have the bullpen depth, you don't get to or win the dance. And I'm not all that certain they've got the bullpen depth behind Smoltz this time, either, as good as the team looks now.
8
posted on
07/27/2002 5:54:28 PM PDT
by
BluesDuke
To: Dales
Indeed was 1986 a time. I still think Jesse Orosco and not quite Ray Knight should have been the Series MVP in the end. And I still think the real goat horns belong to Red Sox manager John McNamara.
And I will tell you that if someone could have pounded some sense into Sid Fernandez about the poundage he couldn't stop carrying, he would have been a Hall of Famer: this guy was unhittable. I learned this only recently, but Sid Fernandez lifetime had an opponents' batting average of .215. 215. There are Hall of Famers whose batting average against isn't close to that (Warren Spahn and Whitey Ford are two, Walter Johnson's also is higher). Sid Fernandez should have been a Hall of Famer, instead of eating himself into baseball oblivion and carrying so much bulk that it put more strain than due on his throwing arm.
9
posted on
07/27/2002 6:06:24 PM PDT
by
BluesDuke
To: Dales
My memory is fading on it. I believe Darryl hit a home run. I think Knight had another hit.
But I'll never forget Jesse Orosco, who is still pitching I think, throwing his mit to the moon after the last strikeout.
Darryl Strawberry led off the Met eighth in Game Seven with an ICBM-shot of a home run on an 0-2 pitch and a badly needed insurance run: the Mets started the bottom of the eighth with a 6-5 lead. Ray Knight followed him with a base hit and Rafael Santana drew a walk. Then Jesse Orosco batted in a sacrifice situation and, with the Red Sox putting the rotation (also known as the wheel) play on to foil the bunt, Orosco showed bunt for a couple of pitches and then, as Wade Boggs charged the third base line and Bill Buckner charged the first base line to choke the plate, Orosco waited until the pitch was out of Bob Stanley's hand, withdrew the bunt, and whacked a bouncer up the uncovered middle (shortstop had moved to cover third and second baseman had moved to cover first as part of the wheel), scoring Knight for 8-5, the eventual final score.
To this day, Jesse Orosco (now pitching as a situational reliever for the Dodgers) can go almost nowhere without someone bringing up the glove-toss after he fanned Marty Barrett to nail the Series. Newsday published a special section on the Series and the cover shot was Orosco on his knees after tossing the glove, arms raised up, his face looking up toward the sky with his mouth wide open in joy. It is probably the image most people have when they hear his name whatever he had done before or since (and he has been, mostly, a remarkable relief pitcher).
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