Sunday, October 30, 2016

IS IT JUST ME?

Am I the only one that sees this? I've been reading for two days about the genius of Terry Francona. He's making all the right moves at the right time. But is he? A long time ago, a reporter was interviewing Casey Stengel. Casey had a magical career managing the Yankees for 12 years starting in 1949. In that time period, he won 10 American League pennants and 7 World Series, including 5 years in a row. No manager has ever come close to those numbers. In his other 13 years of managing, he never finished higher than 5th and only broke .500 (77-75) once.  The reporter asked, "Casey, how did you get so smart when you came to the Yankees?" "Son," Casey replied, "It's easy to be a genius when you got Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra on your team."
Casey was right. You're only as good as the players on your team. When they perform, you're a genius, when they don't, you're a bum.
I thought Joe Girardi overused his bull pen, but Francona is worse. Why do you remove a starting pitcher in the fourth or fifth inning when he's obviously in control, just to get to your bullpen? Sure, it's worked, but Andrew Miller has pitched 7+ innings so far in the 3 games in which he has appeared. That's not anything he's ever done. At some point, he's going to fail and when he does, the whole world is going to say  that Francona over-used him. But until that happens, Terry will still be a genius.

The Chicago Cubs look very tight right now. There are a lot of kids on the team and they don't seem to know how to handle this. It seems to me that it's up to Joe Maddon, another resident genius, to get them over this. If he can't, it will soon be 109 years since the last Cub Championship. My Dad once told me that when a team loses it's cool, they start yelling at the umpire whenever a call goes against them, even when the umpire is right. I think we're seeing that right now.

The National Football League is coming down hard on excessive touchdown celebrations, in fact all excessive celebrations. The players are unhappy, saying the league is becoming the NFL - the No Fun League. Okay, we all know that I'm a crotchety old man, but I agree with the league. Spontaneous hugging and high fives are fine, but these crazy dances and little skits they put on? Come on, don't they know how silly they look? Show a little respect for your opponent, please. Watch the pro basketball players. When they score, they don't...wait. Never mind.

***THEY SAID IT***
"Someone asked, “What are the odds of the Cubs and Indians playing in the World Series?” And Fox baseball analyst Pete Rose immediately responded, “6,879 to 1.”"  -- Brad Dickson
"Tickets for this weekend’s games at Wrigley will average $5,000 ea. Of course, this includes Steve Bartman’s ticket. The Cubs gave him $10,000 to go watch the game at a bar in Miami."  -- Tony Chong
"R.I.P. Richard Trentlage. His jingle for Oscar Mayer began airing in 1964, the year of the Browns last NFL championship. Hard to say which has become a bigger name in wieners."  -- RJ Currie
"Yoenis Cespedes has opted out of his NY Mets contract and plans to test the free agent market. Because 4 teams in 6 years wasn’t enough?"  -- Janice Hough
"Cubs fan ready to get completely drunk again on only 2 days’ rest."  -- TheOnion.com
"What a year for Cleveland sports. The Cavaliers won an NBA title, the Indians are in the World Series and the Browns almost made a first down."   -- Brad Dickson
"In Game 1 of the World Series, with the Cubs down 6-0 and one out in the ninth, Chicago’s Willson Contreras hit one deep. Even down six in the ninth, Contreras couldn’t pass on the opportunity to perform a check-me-out bat-flip while gazing in adoration of his home run — which bounced off the wall. Contreras turned a triple into a double."  -- Phil Mushnick

CP-
 




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