FIRE JOE MORGAN: A Modest Proposal

FIRE JOE MORGAN

Where Bad Sports Journalism Came To Die

FJM has gone dark for the foreseeable future. Sorry folks. We may post once in a while, but it's pretty much over. You can still e-mail dak, Ken Tremendous, Junior, Matthew Murbles, or Coach.

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Thursday, July 14, 2005

 

A Modest Proposal

Can we please call an end to this kind of comment?

The scene: Yankees-Red Sox, top of the first. One out, nobody on. Robinson Cano hits a blooper to left, which Manny misplays. Cano stupidly tries to stretch it to third, and is gunned down for Manny's league leading 11th outfield assist.

Michael Kay:

"As strange as it may sound, if you're going to gamble to try to stretch it to third, you can do it with one out. You can make the second out at third, because you're gaining an advantage if you get there."

Michael Kay, in all of your infinite baseball wisdom, please explain why it is just as good to have nobody on with two outs as it is to have a man on second with one out. Especially when your next three batters are Sheffield, A-Rod, and Hideki Matsui (who is hitting .477 in his last 11 games). How is that okay?

Postscript: Sheffield walks, A-Rod singles him to third, Matsui flies out. The Yankees should be winning 1-0.

posted by Murbles  # 7:21 PM
Comments:
This is what they call "conventional baseball wisdom," and it is always accompanied by the mantra that you never make the first or third out of an inning at third. But the thing that drives me nuts is that people just say that it's okay that you made the second out at third, since that's the CBW, without taking into account whether it was stupid baserunning or not. When Paul O'Neill got thrown out trying for three with one out in the first inning against the DBacks in the 2001 WS, he was almost praised for it -- for being aggressive and all that nonsense. It was a stupid play when you are 38 (or whatever) year-old Paul O'Neill, and you're in a World Series. But at least they were facing Schilling, and trying for a run early wasn't a terrible idea. In this situation, however, Cano flared a ball to left that Manny slid and missed by fifteen feet -- but it's still LEFT FIELD at FENWAY and SHEFFIELD, AROD, and MATSUI are coming up, and to get thrown out at third with one out on THAT PLAY was insanely dumb. You were given a free double. Take it, and let Sheff knock you in. The point of all of this being, just because it is CBW that you are "allowed" to make the second out of an inning at third base, does not mean that making the second out of an inning at third base is always okay. It's about context, people.
 
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