Even slugger Lance Berkman, one of the hottest hitters in baseball this season, resorted to dropping a bunt single in the eighth inning, with the Astros down by four. It was only the second bunt single of his career and first since 2002.
"That's a good play," Cooper said of Berkman's decision to bunt with the third baseman playing him deep. "That's a baseball player's play. It's a nice job. We need baserunners. If you hit a ball out of a ballpark, I call them rally-killers when you get down like that. We need to keep a rally going, and that was a nice play to me."
If you hit the ball out of the ballpark, scoring a run for your team and getting said team from 5-1 to 5-2, you have done something bad.That is the position of Cecil Cooper, who has been involved with baseball for like 30 years.
You have done something bad. By hitting a home run.
People.
Please. Do something. I don't know what. Write a letter. Call your local congressman. Take to the streets. Get religious. This shit has to stop.
(Thanks to the one billion people who emailed us about this.)
****EDIT: I Am A Dumb Moron
As many of you pointed out, there was nobody on base when Berky laid down the bunt single, so when I wrote "2-run homer" I was, to coin a phrase, "wrong." I have corrected this.
But: two things:
1. how is it "killing a rally" when there is no one on base?
2. It's still dumb to say a bunt single when you are down 4 is better than a home run when you are losing a baseball game, even though -- as many of you pointed out -- sometimes guys hit better from the stretch, etc. Some of you even broke out Win Expectancy charts and showed me that the difference is not very big, at all, between "runner on, down by four," and "no runners on, down by 3." My issue, though, is that Mr. Cooper seems to be saying that having a baserunner on first is far better than that baserunner already having scored, which is silly.
Labels: cecil cooper, home runs are rally killers
