2014 World Series thread

Rocker was never as good as Mark Wohlers. Wohlers was never the same after Leyritz got to him in '96.

For the brawl: The great thing about getting MLB to release old video finally is breaking that kind of stuff down forensically. Straw was trying to get to Benitez for over 10 minutes before he finally found a hole in the Oriole protection. It was like a delayed blitz from a linebacker, because someone else got to Benitez first then Straw came in from the right side I believe and finally landed that haymaker.

Also saw footage of the Braves-Padres brawl in '84 I believe? Never saw that one before, I was just getting into baseball that year. Man that was incredible to watch.

 

Strawberry and Graham Lloyd. Moved him from obscure Aussie lefty to
Bronx legend.

 

We do not speak the name of Armando Blownsavus in the Bay Area. He was a one night stand we had while we were really drunk. It's best to forget about it.

 

Interesting series -- Giants are down to nine pitchers, maybe 10 if they feel OK about Lincecum. In addition to Strickland, they have to pull the plug on Machi.

If they go behind 2-1, they have to think about Bumgarner in Game 4 so he can also go in Game 7.

 

They may be down even more if Timmy is actually hurt. The only good thing about an injury, however, is the Giants can bring up another arm to maybe help things out.

 

From a Giants perspective, I was thinking more Atlee Hammaker or Salomon Torres.

 

Machi was nails earlier in the year, but that was when he was getting ahead with the FB and then could throw that forkball and make them chase. Nowadays, he's getting behind and then getting rocked. Sadly, there's no other RH other than Romo and Casilla.

As for Strickland, he's just got to think about things he can control, like not throwing meatballs and getting beat by the likes of Infante!

Giants are fine; they got the split and are going home with HF advantage. So long as "Big Game" Vogey (history shows he can at least walk the walk) shows up in Gm. 4, the Giants are good because Hudson >> Guthrie.

 

Haven't seen the presser, was out walking the dog, but did anyone ask Bochy about Peavy starting the sixth? The way he walked off the mound talking to the ump after the fifth, it sure looked like he thought he was done.

 

Sal wanted no part of Strickland. There is all sorts of crazy going on there.

 

Found on FB:

 

I wanted to check in -- from downtown KC as my son and my father are eating a late breakfast before we drop him off at the airport and drive home.

What a night.

When we got finally got inside the stadium, we chatted with some of the other people in our row. Turned out the group at the end had 3 people but 4 tickets so we all slid over and the three of us sat in a row. It was perfect.

Some of the most satisfying moments came in the hours before we even walked in, though. Picked him up at KCI, stuffed ourselves with BBQ and made the slow crawl to the K.

Part of our "issues" come in what I do for a living. I'm part of the "evil media", in his eyes. Yet, as we walked through the parking lot, we came across all of the satellite trucks outside the stadium, on the southeast edge. I know most of the sports reporters (from my years as a sports anchor) and they knew me. I was able to introduce my dad to these sports anchors, including some that even he remembered from 35 years before.

He seemed impressed because, after 20 years of me being in media and 20 years of him telling me to get out of it, he finally didn't nag me about it on this trip. He recognizes I make a pretty good living but, again, it pales in comparison to his decades in corporate PR. I guess it's in his nature to look down on reporters.

While we were in one of the team stores inside the stadium, I almost had a flashback to 1979, when I was five. He bought me one of those little cardboard sheets that had 26 cut-outs, one for each mini-helmet, including the Mariners and Blue Jays (the latest teams). I remember that night vividly at "Royals Stadium", Angels at KC - Herzog managing the Royals. Late summer. My dad bought that for me and it was one of the most treasured possessions for years.

He looked at me last night, smiled, took a black "American League Champions" hat off the wall, tossed it to me and tossed one to my kid.

"It's on me."

As for the game itself, what an experience. So damn loud out there and we were in the 200 section - probably 30 rows behind the Royals dugout. My dad grabbed my arm when Cain came sprinting around with the go-ahead run. We jumped around like the family that wins "Big Money" on Family Feud when Perez uncorked the double that scored two. The Infante homer was simply gratuitous to our night. That final hour was like a dream -- no more stress over winning and just taking in the sights.

We lingered inside the stadium for about an hour after the game, until we were about to get kicked out. I showed my father how all of the live shots and crews on the field were doing their jobs. (When I was younger, I really wanted to take the old man to an NFL game that I was working - to show him the whole process of shooting a game, covering the locker room and whipping it into a story. We were never able to make that happen.)

This morning, a funny sight, as I'm rubbing the long night and the fatigue out of my eyes. I hear the voices in the next part of the suit and it's my dad and my son working on his math homework. A little giggling. Some surprising patience from my dad -- he wasn't very good at this 30 years ago for me.

Perhaps he's trying to make up for all of those years where we didn't talk. Where every visit was a siege.

We'll never be best friends but I appreciate the effort he tried to make. He's told me over and over that I'm an excellent father and I've never - once - felt the need to reciprocate because he wasn't. However, there comes a time to lay down those arms in MOST rifts. To knock the top layers of bricks off the wall.

I'm glad we were able to do that.

And thanks to all of you who asked.

 

Great story, Ex. Glad to hear the three generations of men in your family had such a great night.