Wednesday, November 13, 2013

TWO THINGS

***MANAGER OF THE YEAR***
Clint Hurdle, Pittsburgh, and Terry Francona, Cleveland, were chosen Manager of the Year by the Baseball writers association. Both took perennial losers and made them winners in one year, which made them prime candidates for the award. A good second choice might have Joe Girardi, who basically brought a triple-A team into third place in the combative AL East.
John Tomas of the Boston Herald, believes John Farrell, Red Sox manager, actually deserved the award because BB writers traditionally give the award to a manager of a small market team. He calls it "Big-Market Bias." I call it "Big Boston Whining." Farrell is a good manager and he did a fine job, but he really took over for a team with a hellava core, a couple of nice add-ons and made it work for two reasons. 1) His high-priced stars produced, unlike the previous year, and 2) they had no significant injuries. When Joe Torre was winning all those World Series about 13 years ago, voters would claim they didn't vote for him because "...he had all the horses." And they were right. Boston always feels as though they should win everything, all the trophies, all the awards - everything. They also had the help of a very silly trade that the Dodgers made that erased the biggest mistakes their now-departed General Manager made.
So just shut up, Boston, and stop being overly impressed with yourselves.

Congratulations to Terry Francona and Clint Hurdle. They deserved their awards.

***LET'S FIX WHAT AIN'T BROKEN***
Buster Olney,  someone who is usually on the money, has blown this one. He thinks the BB Hall of Fame should increase the number of candidates the writers can vote for from 10 to 15, because with only ten, there are a number of "worthy" candidates that he is forced to leave off his ballot.
First of all, I don't believe there are 15 eligible candidates on the ballot that deserve to be in the Hall, but then, I'm a purist. If you go through the list of members, you will find, as I did, at least 50 players who don't really belong there. For example, Tinkers, Evers and Chance, are in the Hall based on a poem. Can you believe that? Their career stats are an insult to the legitimate members. I won't even go into the Mazeroski situation.
Secondly, Buster says that a log-jam has been created by the eligibility of the so-called PED users that are becoming available. I guess he wants to vote for them. Very few other people want to, that's why they're still there and not getting any real support. Even Barry Bonds has said he doesn't care if he gets in or not. Roger Clemens said the same thing. Sour grapes maybe, but I don't want to see them in there either.

There is another Molina in the major leagues, joining Yadier and Jose. It's the brother Benjy, who has retired but will now be the first base coach for the Rangers. He's 39, but I'll bet he's still better than some of the catchers starting in the majors right now.

***THEY SAID IT***
"In the wake of the Redskins' name debate, there's another NFL controversy. After the Richie Incognito-Jonathan Martin story and last night's loss to Tampa, a group of sea creatures is demanding Miami drop "Dolphins."  -- Brad Dickson
"Penguins forward Pascal Dupuis pulled out his own tooth on the bench. The guy plays hockey; what’s the rush?"  -- RJ Currie
" #2 Michigan State knocked off #1 Kentucky, 78-74 in men’s college basketball tonight. For those Wildcat freshmen, this could be the most painful memory of the whole six months they spend in college."  -- Janice Hough
"The Atlanta Braves have announced that they will be moving to a new stadium in a few years. Team officials say the new site will be much more convenient for fans not to go to come playoff time." -- Mark Ragovin
"A Kansas woman apparently is trying to trade her wedding ring for tickets to the Chiefs home game against the Broncos Dec 1. Wonder if she’ll offer her husband for playoff tickets?"  -- Janice Hough
"Another hockey brawl — this one a postgame affair after Bemidji State upset Ohio State 3-2 — resulted in an NCAA-record 303 penalty minutes and 19 game disqualifications. Still not impressed? It was a WOMEN’S hockey game."  -- Dwight Perry
"Why do the Cowboys like to send Dez Bryant long. So they don’t have to hear him complain."  -- Alan Ray
"Ohio State receiver Evan Spencer told reporters, when asked about No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Florida State, “I think we’d wipe the field with both of them.”Then he quickly excused himself, saying he’d just been ordered to take a drug test."  -- Dwight Perry

 CP-







 

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