The old line is “if you watch sports long enough you will see something you have never seen before”. Nowhere is that more true than baseball. In today's world people say, “I dont have to watch the games…I can get all the highlights on my phone or a dozen other places” Who has time to watch games live? Well. yes you can watch the highlights after the fact, but it is never the same as actually watching historical stuff happen live, in real time. Case in point….yesterday's Game 5 of the ALDS in Toronto. If you were watching it live, you saw a 7th inning for the ages. If you were like me, you noticed it blowing up on Twitter while sitting in your car downtown…not the same. When two reporters with a combined 65 years covering major league baseball say they have never seen something, you might want to pay attention. There is too much stuff that happened to go into detail here. Let's just say that a 21 minute delay while the umpires research an obscure rule after the catcher's throw back to the pitcher hits the bat and allows a run to score, Toronto fans pelting the field with garbage after the ruling went against them…three consecutive errors by Texas in the bottom of the inning…a three run blast from Jose Bautista and a bat flip so monumental that he may get beaned several times for it next spring…are not things you see every day. People say, how can you stay on the couch all day watching baseball…”it's so boring”. You watch for moments like this… I only wish I would have seen it live.
I have seen the catcher's throw hit a bat during a throw back to the pitcher before in a Legion game…but never have I seen a run score on the play.
Obviously fans should never throw stuff on the field…but it was sorta nice to see intensity like that. They were into the game…not passive on-lookers.
I've never been a big believer in this “don't show me up” mentality in baseball. Players need to realize that emotion will be shown in big moments. If a pitcher doesn't want a hitter to get excited about a big home run…strike the #*@!$# out. Then he can fist pump all the way back to the dugout. I realize that baseball is not football and too much emotion hurts your performance, but to drain all of the emotion out of big moments does nothing to make the game more interesting for the fans.
MLB did not allow Dale Scott and the umpires face reporters after the game. That needs to change. If managers and players have to face the press and account for their mistakes after a game, why shouldn't the men in blue have to face the same scrutiny? I grant you, many times they are right and the crowd is wrong when interpreting rules…but when they blow it…they should face the music.
Got a chance to talk with John Fogerty yesterday. He has a new autobiography out called naturally “Fortunate Son”. As the driving force behind arguably the 'greatest American rock & roll band” ever, he'll have some interesting tales to tell. Didn't get along with his record company, got ripped off by his manager and had a falling out with the other CCR members. Gonna have to pick up this one and Elvis Costello's new book too…some fall music reading on the agenda.
Songs Of The Day (from my I-pod)
