<p>No. I think the infielder veered off because he heard a call from where normally there would be more likely a fielder, not an umpire, assumed he ws being called off, so didn’t catch it. as far as same or different position, I hd remembered it as the runners had advanced a base. Anyway, i think it’s evident that hd no call been made, the fielder would have caught the ball. It’s clear he was going to. hence two outs, two men on base.</p>
<p>Not of tht excuses the bad behavior of the fans.</p>
<p>True. The fan behavior was pitiful. Given the number of beer bottles you see in the pictures it’s not hard to see how it got out of hand quickly. :)</p>
<p>Everyone will choose to see the play however they like. I’ve refereed football games and umpired baseball games for 16 years and one truism holds through all of it. If the referees/umpires become more of a story than the game/players, it’s certainly not because you did your job well.</p>
<p>In any case…Tigers win to go up 1-0 in the ALDS!! Verlander goes 7 strong and the cardiac twosome of Benoit and Valverde get out mostly unscathed. We’ll take it!!</p>
<p>Being a former wolverine myself, it’s nice to see the Tigers doing well. I’m a Mets fan (yeah, I know) so I’m behind anyone who’s team doesn’t start with Y.</p>
<p>Sorry garland, but I am looking forward to the game tonite that includes a team whose name starts with Y. :)</p>
<p>Although I am a bit worried by those amazing O’s.</p>
<p>I think an O’s/Nats World Series would be a ton of fun!</p>
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</p>
<p>An Orioles/Cardinals World Series would be great. Back to “All St. Louis Series”</p>
<p>The pressure really got to the A’s and Tigers. Coco Crisp overruns a pop fly, has it hit off his midsection and heel of glove, 2 runs score, Tigers lead. Joaquin Benoit throws a wild pitch, tie game, gives up home run, A’s lead. Don’t remember the A’s reliever’s name but wild pitch and game tied. Then a couple of hits and a sacrifice fly and the Tiger go to Oakland up 2-0. Weird, weird, weird.</p>
<p>BTW, if you want to know why the Red Sox have gotten worse each year since 2007, look at the talent evaluation. They acquired Coco Crisp at big cost and dumped him. He’s not great but he had a .742 OPS (.325 OBP) this year for the A’s. Traded Josh Reddick for the utterly useless Andrew Bailey - who blew the save in the one game the Sox could have won at the end of the year. Reddick strikes out too much but he’s 25 and hit 32 HR’s. The Sox now have Cody Ross, who is 32, who also strikes out too much and whose power has peaked at about 20-24 HR’s. And Reddick is a much better fielder: see, e.g., the lay out catch he made look easy in Saturday’s game.</p>
<p>The Sox also traded away David Murphy, who starts for the Rangers, and Brandon Moss, who plays for the A’s (and who, to be fair, has taken a while to develop).</p>
<p>And they signed Adrian Gonzales, who they misevaluated as a huge power hitter based on one season of 41 HR’s. He’s more of a 25-30 player but he’s now 30 and with the end (or diminishing) of steroids he should be past his power peak. And inconceivably signed Carl Crawford for at least $5m more a year than any other team would have paid.</p>
<p>Go Nats! one down 2 to go. Not sure I have many fingernails left though :)</p>
<p>
The money is pretty much irrelevant for the Red Sox, the issue has been talent evaluation.</p>
<p>On the bright side though, next year Lackey will be back. ;)</p>
<p>One thing that bothers me about Sox fandom - more mediadom - is the need to make villains. Lackey pitched with a significant injury and needed surgery, but he went out every time. He wasn’t great with the media, but he was treated like a carrier of the plague. Same with Matt Clement when he was signed. Not a great pitcher but it turned out he was throwing with a shoulder that needed complete reconstruction. The media lays it on these guys and they’re the actual heroes, the “dirt dogs” who go out every game even though they’re hurt. </p>
<p>I try to remember that the sainted Ted Williams was hated by the media and a big portion of the fans because they thought he should hit more home runs and blamed him for the organization not winning the championship. The guy’s lifetime OBP is .482, which is higher than the regular season OBP high year after year. Including this year, with one guy at .476 with fewer than 350 plate appearances and then Joe Mauer at .416. The excuse now in the media is they didn’t understand, but as I see it the media still doesn’t understand because they continue to blame the wrong players.</p>
<p>Any Cincinnati fans here? Giants vs. Reds in game 2 of playoffs tonight. :)</p>
<p>Go Nats!!!</p>
<p>Now THIS is the Tigers I was hoping to see all year.</p>
<p>The day the Red Sox signed Lackey, Angels fans were all over the articles and boards laughing at the Red Sox for paying twice what the guy is worth.</p>
<p>$16+ mil a year is #1 starter/ace level, he’s had one year that he pitched at that level. Then there is the whole beer and fired chicken fiasco…</p>
<p>If you play up to your contract (Pedro, Manny) the fans generally don’t have an issue. When you get crazy money because the team is stupid, and you don’t live up to it, you will get grief from the fans.</p>
<p>The Ted Williams thing is somewhat inexplicable, but since that was 60 years ago I don’t feel like I have to explain that. :D</p>
<p>impressed the Nats pulled that out</p>
<p>GREAT ending for the Yanks. Ninth inning explosion of runs and CC one out short of a complete game.</p>
<p>Happy I DVRed it to watch this am.</p>
<p>So I was watching the Tigers and A’s playing on the MLB Network. At the end of the 8th inning with the score tied, they switched to the National League game. Seriously?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Another example (but from 2006): </p>
<p>Trading Bronson Arroyo to the Reds for Wily Mo Pena. Arroyo gave up only 1 hit last night (7 innings) for the win. (But I’ve got family in both Cincinnati and San Francisco, so I’m torn!)</p>
<p>I saw Arroyo pitch a perfect game for the Pawtucket Red Sox–that was awesome.</p>
<p>Loved seeing the Tigers’ Don Kelly celebrate his game-winning RBI in Game 2 by lifting Prince Fielder a clear 3 feet off the ground. And that’s no mean feat! Prince is listed at 275 lb. but he looks closer to 300.</p>
<p>I also loved seeing Tigers reliever Al Alburquerque (great name, by the way) kiss the baseball before tossing it to first base for the out after getting an easy come-backer to end the A’s 9th inning. Apparently the A’s Josh Reddick complained after the game that he thought this was “unprofessional” and “classless” and an effort by Alburquerque to “show them up.” Alburquerque said he had no intention of making any statement at all to the A’s, it was just a spontaneous emotional response, he was just so happy to get the out in that pressure situation, and that’s exactly how it looked on television. </p>
<p>Reddick’s the same guy who struck out 3 times against Verlander in Game 1 and 3 more times against Fister in Game 2, and groused to the umpire about every called strike, then threw his bat and helmet in disgust after his 6th strikeout–something that can get you kicked out of a Little League game. Yeah, there’s a guy who knows class. Makes the A’s look like a bunch of whiners and losers.</p>
<p>
I know Theo Epstein made some important acquisitions (Shilling, Ortiz), but the 2004 Red Sox team still had Dan Duquette’s fingerprints all over it.</p>
<p>And Duquette is now in charge of the Orioles, and after one year they make the playoffs… huh. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.</p>