Like him or not, he is the best ever

Buck I think you are the most knowledgeable baseball guy on these threads -- but you are DEAD, DEAD wrong on this one. The one guy who ended up walking to load the bases was struck out at least twice. This was clearly a case of an ump shrinking -- and embarrasingly bad and easily noticeable, particularly when they went to the overhead cam and showed the number of pitches that were over the black that he called balls.

I'm not one to blame umps, but that was a disgraceful display of umpiring and correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think McSherry began the game behind the plate. He was put in there late in the game when the other guy who started it got sick.

 

A horrible comparison and different sports all together and more importantly Ben Johnson had one really good year, perhaps even more accurately one or two outstanding races, not one decade of being the best in the business and another half decade where he was pretty damn good.....

 

Again -- How can you be certain Bonds wasn't just using andro or creatin or some sort of mixes of other cocktails or even HGH that I would say a very large percentage of players at the time was using. A grand jury, despite the "mountain of evidence" has still not found even a mole-hill of enough evidence to indict him.

 

Gretzky is the greatest offensive hockey player of all time. He is not the greatest hockey player of all time. Bobby Orr is, followed by Gordie Howe.

 

I'm thinking Mark Messier -- who won two more cups without Gretsky -- and Mario Lemiuex would likely not see eye to eye with you....

 

Nobody got sick. McSherry was there the whole time. I'm not sure where you got that from.

Eric Gregg in the '97 NLCS was "embarrasingly bad." McSherry's performance wasn't even in the same ballpark.

Belinda wasn't Nuke LaLoosh-wild, but he was off. Nobody has disputed that. And as any pitcher will tell you: When your control is inconsistent, even if you're not wild, you don't get the calls like you do when you're consistently hitting your spots.

And as the Braves will tell you, when you're consistent, you'll get calls on pitches even when they don't hit the black.

 

Gregg in that Marlins-Braves game was hideous. Belinda through a number of strikes -- from any angle -- and they were being called balls -- even though strikes in the same area earlier in the game were called strikes.

There is no question he got squeezed in that game, but that being said, he shouldn't have been put into that situation.

I said it then, I'll say it now -- Bob Walk, a crafty veteran who knew how to get outs, or Tim Wakefield, who the Braves hitters had no answer for, should have started that ninth inning. That's not a second guess, either, because I said it at the time.

 

Orr revolutionized the game. Before he came along, defensemen didn't rush the puck; they stayed back in their own end. Orr was a scoring defenseman who was responsible in his own end and could stick up for himself. He didn't need a Marty McSorley or a Dave Semenko.

Howe was a bull. He fought. He checked. He scored. He passed. He was and is the definition of a power forward.

Gretzky was the greatest offensive hockey force in the sport's history. But he's not greater than Orr or Howe.

 

Gretsky was a greater offensive player than Mario Lemiuex? Are you sure about this?

 

Uhhh, yeah, we're all very, very sure.

 

Actually Buck, I think he's got you on this one. I'm pretty sure a different umpire started that game (can't remember who). As I recall, he went out pretty early. Somebody else might need to confirm (novelist, this is your cue).

Regarding Eric Gregg, all I can say is ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

 

Yes, yes we are.