2021 MLB Regular Season thread

Really hard for me to say with a straight face that I saw this coming. This is all gravy and I’m just going to grind and enjoy the ride (thank goodness it wasn’t all for a WC berth.)

 

Muncy’s power is hard to replace but they had five others hit 20 or more homers and another four who had double digits.

 

It's a miracle the M's stayed in contention as long as they did. No .300 hitters, half their starters under .220, and no bonafide No. 1 starter or closer. They won 91 games with a - 51 run differential. I think a healthy Paxton (yeah, I know, that never happens) might have made a difference.

 

I was working as an usher at Dodger Stadium that day and more than the loss, we were bummed that there wasn’t a Game 7 because it took money out of our pocket. We got paid double time for the playoffs so the postseason games were nice paydays.

Lasorda should have walked Clark to pitch to Andy Van Slyke, who wasn’t yet the player he became. And fuck Tom Niederfuer.

 

Don't forget this one. I can't seem to find the Vin Scully call of it, which was an absolute classic: “Oh what a big break. Matt Holliday had the game over, and somehow missed the ball with his glove. It hit him right in the groin, hopefully he’s wearing a cup, and it landed right in front of him. You talk about a painful error for Matt Holiday.”

 

I developed a pretty good professional working arrangement with Niedenfuer. He was friendly and helpful with all of the writers. I hated it that he was the goat, especially since Clark was a well-known asshole.

In '83, at spring training, I was talking with Niedenfuer. He asked where I lived. I was in Mar Vista then. He said he wanted to find a place that was halfway between Dodger Stadium and LAX. My apartment was approximately halfway. My dad checked for vacancies and he actually got a place in my building. However, he didn't make the team. When he was called up a month later, he got a place in the same building where Dave Stewart lived, on the Overland Ave. hill near the 10.

Niedenfuer was a great guy who scored incredible women. His wife was maybe the second- or third-best looking on the team, behind Garvey and maybe Forster. She didn't want to be a "baseball wife." She had a psychology degree and was working in that field. They divorced and Niedenfuer wound up with actress Judy Landers, the sister of actress Audrey Landers.

 

The M's seem to do a "rebuild" every three years - they develop a core, then figure that group won't be good enough before they hit FA and they dump them. Not sure about this present team. The ownership seems to want people to think of the team as a "small market" - in reality, they should go and get Ohtani if they can.

 

“… and then Angie, poor girl, bled all over the trunk of the car as she gasped her last breath … Franklin delivers to Casey Blake outside for ball one. …”

 

No joy in Jays-land today after the Red Sox and Yankees won to keep them out of the playoffs but they left so many wins on the table due to a shitty bullpen early in the season and into the summer. Big questions here now are do they sign Robbie Ray, who totally turned his career around here, and Marcus Semien, who bet on himself and won. I'm not sure they can keep either one but I'd lean towards Semien who was a veteran rock on a really young team. I could see Cavan Biggio and Lourdes Gurriel on the move for pitching help.