Three ESPN Analysts, Three Blithering Idiots
All you have to do if you want to run a shitty blog just like this one is watch ESPN for about an hour a day. I guarantee you at least one of their esteemed employees will cook up a bubbling cauldron of stupid right before your very eyes within that timeframe. To wit, here's what I've collected from some of the highest paid sports analysts in the business in approximately the last 48 hours:
Joe Morgan, on Sunday Night Baseball, after someone goes from first to third on a single:
A few years back we were just sitting around waiting for a three run homer. Now every aspect of the game is important- speed, power, pitching.
Yes, that's right, fans. In case you haven't noticed, baseball has undergone a dramatic shift in strategy since earlier in the decade. In fact it might have been so gradual that you didn't notice. Remember way back when pitching didn't really matter? Teams didn't use it to try to win games, general managers didn't try to acquire it, and hell, fans didn't even talk about it. And yet, here we are in 2009, and I don't think anyone will disagree with what Joe says here: pitching is finally important. Well played, you chubby little mustachioed fool. Well played. You are truly a scholar of the game. Bonus points to Joe for using the lamest "negative thing you can say about the strategy some power-focused teams like to use if you're a purist who likes stolen bases and bunting a lot" available. Indeed, that proverbial three run homer never does show up when teams refuse to "move runners" or "be aggressive on the basepaths," does it? Unless it does, in which case those teams are awarded with three runs; three more than they would have earned by asking Adam Dunn to steal a bag or Manny Ramirez to lay down a bunt.
Also, the glorification of going from first to third might be the stupidest link in a long stupid chain made up of things that are pointlessly celebrated by dumbshits like Joe. You know those scrappy little Angels! When they have a guy on first, and someone singles into the RCF gap, if that guy on first happens to be fast, he often ends up on third. As if this were a risky and innovative baseball strategy that certain teams refuse to employ.
Now we're going to see baseball the way it was meant to be played.
As opposed to 2005 and 2006, during which an iteration of baseball was being played that probably made Abner Doubleday (or whoever the fuck invented it, I don't care what the real story is) roll over in his grave.
Mike Golic, a few hours later on NFL Tonight, talking about some irrelevant topic because it's early July and no one in the league is doing diddley shit for the next two weeks:
What did our coaches say to us back in Little League? I'm going to put the best 11 guys on the field.
Your Little League coach was a real cheater if he tried to employ that strategy. Maybe you're thinking of Pop Warner. Also, the statement itself seems to be substantively wrong. What coach of a young sports team is that cutthroat? I suppose there are teams of 10 year olds out there, run by guys who think they're Bill Cowher and like to tell their kids that only the guys who can make a fucking tackle occasionally are going to fucking get into the goddamn motherfucking game, but they're probably the extreme exception rather than the rule. Mike Golic is a dope. Both Mark Schlereth and him should be permanently assigned to ESPN's national spelling bee coverage team.
Finally, my new favorite ESPN punching bag (aka the Country Fried Emptyscrote), John Kruk, had this to say about an umpire's blown call on a Derek Jeter stolen base attempt (in which Jeter was safe but the ump called him out):
HE SHOULD GO AND APOLOGIZE TO JETER, AND APOLOGIZE TO THE YANKEES, BECAUSE HE BLEW THAT CALL AND OFFERED UP AN EXCUSE THAT WAS BULL.
All caps used to demonstrate his level of frustration with this grave injustice. An umpire making a mistake on a bang-bang slide/tag play? What is the world coming to! Next you'll tell me that the strike zone changes from game to game and even batter to batter. I say if an ump makes a mistake, he should be publicly shamed by being hung in a pillory on top of the home dugout for the rest of the game. That's the only way to keep those fuckers accountable. As things are, they're running amok- blowing a safe/out call at least every twenty or thirty games. What a disaster. Maybe umpires need to take a cue from the teams that are breaking new ground by considering pitching as something important and actually try to get all of their calls right. That's the way baseball was meant to be officiated, right?
12 comments:
Why do I get the feeling that Kruk wouldn't have been so indignant about that blown call if the runner had been, say...Brian Roberts?
Why does it seem like the analysts who decry the 'dreaded' and mystical 3 run HR are the ones who couldn't hit a ball further than 20 feet?
Out of his 2,517 hits Joe Morgan had 1,704 singles...
I imagine Joe's interactions with his manager went something like this:
Joe: Hey coach, there's a guy on first, should I hit a single or just blast a HR. I mean if I hit a HR we'd score two runs, but that's not how baseball is supposed to be played.
Reds' Manager: NOOOOO. YOU WILL SINGLE. That guy on first is fast he'll get to third! Runners on 1st and 3rd is more valuable than having two runs! You better leave that HR bullshit in the past if you ever want to analyze baseball.
Joe: Okay, so since I'm likely going to make it to the hall (even back then Joe was clairvoyant) I'll hit a single steal second and then Dave Concepción can drive us in. That way 30 years from now I can brag about how this team is the greatest goddamn team ever.
::Joe hits a shot into RCF and the runner goes from first to third, Joe is waved onto second as the OF mishandles the ball::
Joe to 1B coach: I WILL NOT ADVANCE TO SECOND. SINGLE, STOLEN BASE, DAVE CONCEPCION.
::runner rounds third::
Joe: GODDAMNIT THIS IS NOT HOW YOU PLAY BASEBALL.
::Joe tackles runner, both are called out and the inning ends with no runs scored::
I think it's the Hal Reynolds school of thought-- if you're a dangerous power hitter, pitchers won't pitch to you. And if they don't pitch to you, what good are you?
Anyway, Joe Morgan would have bunted to the third base side, thus allowing the running on first to make a daring dash to third, which would totally demoralize the defense. Joe would steal second, Davey would score one run on a sac fly, and Joe would score when the demoralized outfielder made a poor throw to the plate.
Joe Morgan was David Eckstein before there was a David Eckstein. Except for, you know, the part where he's also a HoF second baseman.
running = runner. That bunt was so devastating that I couldn't think straight for a moment.
Wasn't the game meant to be played without gloves? I don't hear Joe championing that cause.
Eh, that's a pretty terrible call on the Kruk indignation. He was frustrated, I presume, because Jeter was obviously safe and the umpire told him that no tag was necessary because the ball beat him to the bag. Many/most respectable writers (rob neyer, keith law, joepo, etc) have agreed that, if true, the umpire should be reprimanded, fined, suspended or otherwise disciplined.
I am a Mets fan. What's a 3 run homer? Also, being a Mets fan I though sac bunts in all situations were wise. Why do I think Joe would approve of Jerry Manuel and his managing philosophy?
Sure, last Anonymous, but no one with a brain thinks umps need to issue personal apologies to teams, let alone individuals players who they've wronged. Let the umps face internal discipline, not being forced to make asses of themselves.
I enjoyed rich's skit. =)
The apology should take place in Congress and aired on CNN. And then Larry King, Barbara Walters and Oprah should interview Jeter. Next, Jeter should speak at Yankee stadium while mimicking Lou Gehrig's 'luckiest man alive' speech for dramatic effect.
I'm with anon, Larry B.
It was a bullshit thing for the ump say. Okay, maybe we all sort of KNOW there's an unwritten rule that, say, if the ball beats you to the bag you're out, or that Greg Maddux gets a bigger strike zone, or that a SS doesn't really have to have the ball when he's on 2B on the DP, but for an ump to actually acknowledge to the player that that's the criteria he's using to call the game is fucking ridiculous.
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