Tuesday, August 25, 2009
THE SEASON IS OVER
When, oh when, for the love of all things good and holy, are my teams going to stop being the victims in heartbreaking losses?
We had a 4-1 lead going into the bottom of the 14th last night at Coors Field, and suddenly, the Giants pitchers became massively retarded. A couple walks, including to the pitcher, and then a grand slam, and suddenly instead of being two games out in the wild card race we're now four games back.
The entire weekend was a compendium of ways to blow a ballgame. We're up 6-1 on Saturday and still get slaughtered. We're up 2-0 with Timmy pitching on Sunday and the Rockies come back and get a home run for the lead in the 7th. And don't make me relive last night's debacle. If we just hang on to all three of those leads, we are two games up in the wild card race. TWO GAMES UP! Instead, we are FOUR GAMES BACK. Unreal.
Oh, and by the way, fuck the Colorado Rockies. That franchise exists solely to be a thorn in the side of the San Francisco Giants and their fans. Nothing the Rockies do ever benefits the Giants, and everything they do hurts the Giants. Even in 1993, Colorado's expansion year, they had already established that their purpose was to mess with San Francisco. Keeling over against Atlanta in the four-game series to end the 1993 season and put the Braves in the playoffs while the Giants, 103 wins and all, had to stay home. Then 1998, when all the Giants had to do to win the wild card was hold on to a 7-0 lead at Coors field, and the Rockies came back and won...and the most disturbing image of all was Dusty Baker smiling as he went onto the field after that game. There's a bunch more that I can't go into for fear of killing myself with a hammer.
I hate the Colorado Rockies.
We had a 4-1 lead going into the bottom of the 14th last night at Coors Field, and suddenly, the Giants pitchers became massively retarded. A couple walks, including to the pitcher, and then a grand slam, and suddenly instead of being two games out in the wild card race we're now four games back.
The entire weekend was a compendium of ways to blow a ballgame. We're up 6-1 on Saturday and still get slaughtered. We're up 2-0 with Timmy pitching on Sunday and the Rockies come back and get a home run for the lead in the 7th. And don't make me relive last night's debacle. If we just hang on to all three of those leads, we are two games up in the wild card race. TWO GAMES UP! Instead, we are FOUR GAMES BACK. Unreal.
Oh, and by the way, fuck the Colorado Rockies. That franchise exists solely to be a thorn in the side of the San Francisco Giants and their fans. Nothing the Rockies do ever benefits the Giants, and everything they do hurts the Giants. Even in 1993, Colorado's expansion year, they had already established that their purpose was to mess with San Francisco. Keeling over against Atlanta in the four-game series to end the 1993 season and put the Braves in the playoffs while the Giants, 103 wins and all, had to stay home. Then 1998, when all the Giants had to do to win the wild card was hold on to a 7-0 lead at Coors field, and the Rockies came back and won...and the most disturbing image of all was Dusty Baker smiling as he went onto the field after that game. There's a bunch more that I can't go into for fear of killing myself with a hammer.
I hate the Colorado Rockies.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
HITTING FOR THE CYCLE IS OVERRATED, AND SOMETIMES STUPID
First things first: That was not a triple that Colorado's Troy Tulowitzki hit last night at Coors Field in Denver to complete a cycle.
The Cubs' Alfonso Soriano, for the briefest of moments, bobbled the ball near the left field wall, giving Tulowitzki the slight window he needed to advance to third, or at least to make an attempt to. That is what is known as an error in Major League Baseball. Of course, with a "cycle" pending, the official scorer wouldn't dare make such a ruling.
The official scorer -- employed by the home team -- also wouldn't dare give Cubs' shortstop Ryan Theriot an error for throwing the relay past third baseman Jake Fox, even though with a good throw Tulo would have been out by a country mile. That is also what is known as an error in Major League Baseball. Two errors were not scored as such, and T.T. was consequently awarded his desired triple and his cycle -- a single, double, triple and home run in the same game. But anyone who saw the play knows: It wasn't a triple, and he shouldn't have gotten credit for a cycle.
But never mind all this. Getting four hits in a game is a nice achievement. It's a strong performance. Ten total bases in a single game? Also, a very strong night for any player. However, "hitting for the cycle" is not so much a great achievement as it is merely a statistical oddity. If you hit two home runs, a double and a single, technically you have had a better offensive game than you would have if you traded one of the dingers for a three-bagger. But your offensive outburst is lost in the annals of the game simply because you didn't go 1, 2, 3, 4, but instead you went a statistically more impressive 1, 2, 4, 4.
I have heard of players giving up an easy double and instead stopping at first after a clean hit because they were lacking only the single; last night is a case of the opposite: risking an out to get an extra base. The cycle inspires players to take risks they normally wouldn't, all in pursuit of a meaningless statistical anomaly. Tulowitzki himself said, "We were sitting on the bench together and he was telling me, 'If you get anywhere close to getting a triple you better go'...I honestly think if it weren't for him I would have stopped at second."
The Rockies were leading the Cubs 8-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning when Tulowitzki completed his cycle, so it isn't exactly as though he were putting his team's victory in danger. But you can't tell me no player has ever thought about stretching a double into a triple -- or shrinking a double into a single -- in a close game, thereby acting out of tune with what should be done in those situations, all to get a single, a double, a triple and a home run into his line of one game's boxscore. Sometimes -- sometimes -- hitting for the cycle is stupid.
But Tulo didn't really hit for the cycle, now, did he?...
The Cubs' Alfonso Soriano, for the briefest of moments, bobbled the ball near the left field wall, giving Tulowitzki the slight window he needed to advance to third, or at least to make an attempt to. That is what is known as an error in Major League Baseball. Of course, with a "cycle" pending, the official scorer wouldn't dare make such a ruling.
The official scorer -- employed by the home team -- also wouldn't dare give Cubs' shortstop Ryan Theriot an error for throwing the relay past third baseman Jake Fox, even though with a good throw Tulo would have been out by a country mile. That is also what is known as an error in Major League Baseball. Two errors were not scored as such, and T.T. was consequently awarded his desired triple and his cycle -- a single, double, triple and home run in the same game. But anyone who saw the play knows: It wasn't a triple, and he shouldn't have gotten credit for a cycle.
But never mind all this. Getting four hits in a game is a nice achievement. It's a strong performance. Ten total bases in a single game? Also, a very strong night for any player. However, "hitting for the cycle" is not so much a great achievement as it is merely a statistical oddity. If you hit two home runs, a double and a single, technically you have had a better offensive game than you would have if you traded one of the dingers for a three-bagger. But your offensive outburst is lost in the annals of the game simply because you didn't go 1, 2, 3, 4, but instead you went a statistically more impressive 1, 2, 4, 4.
I have heard of players giving up an easy double and instead stopping at first after a clean hit because they were lacking only the single; last night is a case of the opposite: risking an out to get an extra base. The cycle inspires players to take risks they normally wouldn't, all in pursuit of a meaningless statistical anomaly. Tulowitzki himself said, "We were sitting on the bench together and he was telling me, 'If you get anywhere close to getting a triple you better go'...I honestly think if it weren't for him I would have stopped at second."
The Rockies were leading the Cubs 8-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning when Tulowitzki completed his cycle, so it isn't exactly as though he were putting his team's victory in danger. But you can't tell me no player has ever thought about stretching a double into a triple -- or shrinking a double into a single -- in a close game, thereby acting out of tune with what should be done in those situations, all to get a single, a double, a triple and a home run into his line of one game's boxscore. Sometimes -- sometimes -- hitting for the cycle is stupid.
But Tulo didn't really hit for the cycle, now, did he?...
