Saturday, April 11, 2015

6:49

Baseball's new Commissioner, Rob Manfred, is making an effort to speed up the games. The changes that he has implemented will hopefully improve the pace of the games and reduce the overall length. Changes like instituting a pitch clock, shortening the break between innings and keeping batters in the box. This has to help. The biggest perpetrators of long games has always been the Yankees/Red Sox games, so how did these changes affect the first NY-Bos game of the season?
A game lasting nineteen innings and six hours and forty-nine minutes. Twice during the extrra innings of this marathon contest, the Bosox inadvertently scored a run, forcing the Yanks to scratch out one of their own in the home half. Finally, Boston scored in the top of the 19th and the Yanks were unable to answer. Do you think the teams were sending Manfred a message?  "Here's your pitch clock, Rob."
The Series continues today at 1:05 PM. It is unknown if the players were allowed to leave the stadium after the game.

Game notes: 
## A total of 42 players were used, 21 for each side.
## The Yanks left 13 men on base, Boston, 20.
## The four umpires worked the whole game. In spite of all the practice, home plate umpire, Marty Foster, did NOT improve the whole game. This guy had a strike zone that wavered more than R.A. Dickey's knuckleball. I have always maintained that most of the umpires' mistakes occur when calling the outside pitch, mostly because of their positioning on the inside part of the plate. Foster wasn't even close calling the inside pitch.
## With all the talk about whether or not the Yanks improved their hitting, pitching or defense, they seemed to have forgotten one thing: base running. NY shortstop Gregorious seems to have no base running sense at all. I think the Yanks are trying to set a MLB rcord for getting the most guys picked off in a season. Two more bit the dust last night. I think that's four so far.
## While Pablo Sandoval and Mookie Betts (love that name) each had four hits, Mike Napoli went 0-8 with 4 strikeouts.
## A couple of fans sitting in one of the upper tiers behind home plate, dropped dollar bills on the fans sitting in the first few rows of the stands. The cost of those seats often reach 4 figures. The two men said they wanted to see if the fans would scramble to retrieve the money. The estimated total dropped was about $20, so they probably weren't helping defray the cost any. One fan was heard to say,"Let me know when they start dropping 20's. I might get involved then.

***THEY SAID IT***
"Big news at the Masters. Tiger Woods will make the cut! (Oh, yeah, and some guy broke the 36 hole course record. Details, details….)"  -- Janice Hough
"Top QB prospect Jameis Winston says he’s really a good guy off the field. Anyone want to crab about that?"  -- RJ Currie
" The best thing about the NCAA men’s tournament being almost over: Americans can stop wasting three hours per day searching for something called TruTV."  -- Brad Dickson

"Cubs fans had to pee into cups as the restrooms at Wrigley Field were out of order on Opening Day. For those that drank more than a couple of beers, they needed to use a relief pitcher."  -- TC Chong
"The NHL fined Devils center Scott Gomez $1,478.49 for throwing an elbow that earned him a five-minute major and a game misconduct. $1,478, OK. But 49 cents? That’s what you call finishing a check."  -- Dwight Perry
"Marlins pitcher Mat Latos, to The Miami Herald, when asked about his health after giving up seven runs in two-thirds of an inning: “Bruised ego. Everything else feels good."  -- From Sideline Chatter
"A name suggestion for the pedestrian overpass to the hapless Browns’ stadium: “Bridge over the River Cry."  -- Bill Litzer
"There were no bids on an autographed Jay Cutler football at a Chicago charity auction. Actually there were three bids, but they were picked off by a rival bidder."  -- RJ Currie
"Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kendrick Perkins had a 9-step travel that the referees did not call. 9-steps?! “Amateur” sniffed Michael Jordan."  -- Janice Hough
"Troy Polamalu has retired. His final message to Steeler Nation: “I’m outta hair."  -- Marc Ragovin
"Russian President Vladimir Putin recently surfaced after disappearing for 11 days. Turns out all that time he was sitting courtside at NIT games."  -- Brad Dickson
"Baseball tradition: What makes me laugh? Stories that try to draw significance from who is named the starting pitcher for Opening Day. It’s one of 162, isn’t it?"  -- Bob Molinaro

CP-
 














 

No comments: