Andy Van Slyke: Barry Bonds Cost Us The 1992 NL Pennant

Would that be Leyland's or Belinda's fault?

 

Both, and Lind's.

 

You make this far too easy, oops.

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/posts/3040234/

I had just looked it up an hour ago.

Of course, now you will post about five paragraphs about what you really meant or how that example is somehow different.

I think we've covered specifics from my end, oops. The Pirates had lost the previous two NLCS, including in 1991 to the same Atlanta team. Pittsburgh had lost Bonilla from the year before. John Smiley was traded away. Alex Cole was a regular. So was the rapidly declining Mike Lavalliere. I think Cangelosi and Redus were still among the reserves in 1992. Not a great team.

You still won't grasp that point, or somehow try to distance the concept of the teams playing from that of Game 7. Basically you're an insane person with no logic, trying to sound as if you have some.

 

A PLAGUE on anyone who locks this thread!

A POX on their houses!!

 

The logic is simple. If a team can take a lead into the ninth inning of Game 7 of a series, they are good enough to win it. They didn't, but they abilty was there.

The key part about the post of mine that you quoted about Leyland was "for that series," not every bashing he gets for everything else, which is what you started off complaining about. My apologies. You moved the goalposts and I missed it on that one. That makes one of your posts that I misread and about 40 of mine that you misread.

 

You lost me in about 25 ways with that nonsense. First, I'm not sure what the hell you're talking about in that last part. I don't even think I had started responding to you until after the post I cited just now, but I can waste more productive time by going back and looking.

Your first part makes no sense. The closer still has to, you know, close the game. If Stan Belinda was so lacking in skill that he couldn't pull that off, then something is wrong. Jose Mesa also comes to mind almost immediately as an example to refute that argument, which ranks near the bottom of your many clunkers.

 

And I countered with the 2001 Diamondbacks, who won the World Series despite their closer completely falling apart.

Either way, the point was that the series wasn't nearly the mismatch you try to make it out to be.

Regarding the Leyland bashing, I thought you were saying that I agree with all of the bashing he gets. I never said that. I said he deserves the bashing he gets for the '92 NLCS, for reasons I have already laid out.

 

And I said the Diamondbacks had Schilling and Johnson to start nearly all of the games, and Johnson pitched in relief at least once, I think.

Sorry, I forgot to go back and check the sequence. No matter -- you're wearing me down just with the sheer density you possess.

 

And the Pirates had two dominant performances in that series by Tim Wakefield and one by Drabek (though Leyland ruined it by leaving him in too long. )

The point still stands. If a series comes down to the ninth inning of Game 7, it's not a mismatch. It might be one on paper, but not in reality.

 

Andy Van Slyke: A friend of all Canadians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Van_Slyke

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2KRIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WQENAAAAIBAJ&pg=1312,2129810&dq=canadian+helmet+andy-van-slyke&hl=en

 

Not to interrupt whatever this thread has spun into, but as a lifelong Braves fan, I think it's absurd to blame Bonds for what happened in that ninth inning. Given everything else that was happening at that moment (Bonds going to his right to field the ball and throw on the fly, runners circling the bases, crowd going bananas), I think he came extremely close to making a defensive play we'd still be talking about today. I'd love to see what Van Slyke would have done with that ball had it been hit to him. My guess: it wouldn't have been close.

If you want to blame Bonds for anything, blame him for not hitting a lick in the 1991 LCS and doing precious little in '92.

I saw someone else reference the borderline pitches that Berryhill took during his walk. Can't help but wonder if things might have been different had the original home plate umpire (McSherry, I believe) not left the game early due to health reasons.

Have to say, from a fan's perspective, I always found Van Slyke to be every bit as unlikable as Bonds, and I love the shot of him sitting on his a$$ in center watching the Braves celebrate.

 

Van Slyke isn't exactly beloved either.