Running 2011 Baseball Thread, Vol. I: Dedicated to spnited

Tony Romo disagrees with you, and he hasn't even been in a real meaningful game. Heck, Steve Bartman is still hiding out and refuses to do interviews because of his own shame and the lunatics still out there because of one night.

 

Not a chance. His misplay wasn't even in the first graf of the game stories Friday morning.

That game will be remembered for Freese's and Berkman's heroics, not Cruz's bad route to the ball.

Also: According to the Fielding Bible folks, there were 17 balls hit to that approximate area of the field with a 4-second hang time in 2011, like Freese's hit. Only three of those were actually caught. Did Cruz misplay it? Absolutely. But it would have been a tough play even if he had done everything right.

 

Anyone who quotes Gleeman goes down about five notches in my book. Sorry, buck.

 

That figure, while interesting and another data point, is flawed because it doesn't take into account fielder positioning on the pitch. I'd like to see video of each of those 17. Cruz's path to the ball doesn't bother me nearly as much as the fact that he was actually, clearly, despite it all, in position to to make the catch, bad path notwithstanding. He had overcome that by then. I have no way of knowing this, but I suspect it would have been among the easier of the 18 balls to corral. He was there. He was right there.

 

*kicks a puppy*

 

La Russa and several really unpleasant/unlikable players on the roster. This is all setting aside the preening fanbase.

 

I thought that was Mark McGwire, whose best pose has always been hiding behind his spawn.

 

Remember how phony and full of shit Torre was the night Clemens threw the bat at Piazza? And how obviously full of shit he was, defending his player in absurd circumstances even though everyone knew he was lying through his teeth? It seemed totally out of character, the way he tried to attack the media for asking legitimate questions, as if they should be ashamed for questioning the character of a roided up bozo like Roger Fucking Clemens.

To me, the way Torre acted that night, that's how La Russa acts every day of his life.

 

My wife asked me the other night why people don't like LaRussa, and the parallel I gave her was Coach K., i.e., "I run the only classy program in America."

Humorously enough, my mom loves Tony LaRussa. She knows nothing about baseball, but I think she thought he was hot back when he was a 36-year-old managing the team her husband and children cheered for.

 

My wife also likes La Russa.

These are people who don't follow baseball.

 

I know he never practiced, but I wonder how much of this is the lawyer in him. That's the one profession I can think of - maybe agents, too, but a lot of them are lawyers by trade - where people have to publicly stand up for their clients to an absurd degree.

 

Of course. Cruz, despite it all, WAS in position to make that catch. Probably because of how deep he was playing to begin with.

What the number shows is that that type of ball is rarely caught. Even if Cruz was in a better position to catch it than most right fielders, it's still a tough play.

(FWIW, I hate the argument that this or that statistic is "flawed". All statistics are "flawed". They show what they show, nothing more.)

Why? He's like a less-bearded Zeke.