To that point, the Red Sox really had no reason to be holding Wong at first last night - unless they had some scouting intel that he could be caught leaning the wrong way. 
Or maybe it was just to distract Beltran.
No, that was a “ddamn!” moment, not an “oh shit!” moment. 
Papi hit a few triples this season, too - his first in something like eight years. Maybe the PED’s were actually holding him back all those years.
Sadly, I’m convinced that I now have a pair of lucky boxer shorts - the last three Sox wins have come while I’ve been wearing them. I feel like I’m living in a Bud Lite commercial.
Last year broke a string of 12 consecutive seasons with a triple.
Babe Ruth to his career at that point was caught stealing in about half his attempts. I think Dave Roberts (with a stolen base percentage of 97.1% in 2004) was a better bet to steal safely.
Plus, Ruth was thrown out with Bob Meusel at the plate (second highest batting average for the Yankees that year at .315, and decent power), and with the rest of that lineup you’d want to give them a chance to drive you in. Ruth attempting to steal was not a smart play.
Sorry, asserting this with conviction doesn’t make it so. Maybe you can actually read what I wrote. I asserted (correctly, I believe) that the rule permits the ump to make exceptions, but provides no guidance as to what an acceptable exception might be. I offered what I think a reasonable exception might be, consistent with the limits on this that the rules set–which is to say, there are none. Not sure why this is so difficult to understand. I get that people disagree with where I draw the line, but I don’t get why people keep missing completely what I’m saying.
So, when are the Cardinals going to stop pitching to Ortiz?
Hopefully about the time the Sox stop pitching to Holliday
.
red sox win! in an ordinary game!
Wanna scare a Cardinals fan on Halloween? Dress up as David Ortiz.
Actually, I hope they/we see the real David Ortiz on Halloween—that’ll mean we have a Game 7.
It’s because there is no line for you to draw. But it’s clear at this point that you’re not going it understand this, no matter how many times and how many ways it’s explained to you.
hehe
ninja’d by rocking chair; g1
Man I hate the AL and the DH.
Yes, there is. I offer as evidence the words “very likely,” which clearly means this circumstance is not always obstruction though it usually is. The rule allows for exceptions, though it offers no guidance on what constitutes one. This is the space of judgment and opinion, necessarily, unless one conveniently ignores those words and reads it as if they don’t exist. That’s what you’re doing, and it appears to be creating some cognitive dissonance for you, since you’re certain you’re unambiguously right.
You counter with a strong assertion that is based on nothing but your certainty that you must be right. Put another way–I can’t be wrong on a matter of opinion. You, however, absolutely can be wrong in asserting there is not room for judgment in this rule, since the plain English of it shows otherwise.
MotherfuckFUCKsuckingGODDAMMIT…
Operation “Suck Less” continues. It’s like watching an NBA Final that ends 82-80 and you sit there watching your team underperform and the other team underperform less while making this face.
sometimes i wonder what they would have done with babe ruth if the dh had been around in his time. his pitching was a major part of red sox winning the world series in 1918, but his hitting pushed him off the pitcher’s mound to put him in the outfield.
would you keep him on the mound, and have him hit as a dh for other pitchers? who would hit for him on his pitching days?
the way this series is going, i don’t think i want to see a halloween game.
OK, it’s confirmed now. I have to do laundry today.
Th DH is optional so it probably wouldn’t have changed anything, he’d have hit for himself when he pitched. He may have been a DH instead of outfielder, especially in the second half of his career, but that shouldn’t be a factor in the decision to have him stop pitching
It’s maybe not that bad a play. We can simplify just a tiny bit and assume that for Ruth to score, he needs either an extra-base hit when he’s on first, or any hit when he’s on second. (I’m pretending walks are hits just to make things simpler; that results in too many extra-base hits so more scoring from first, but also too many hits from second so I think overall we’ll be close enough).
Let’s assume an OBP of .400 for Meusel and also the next batter, with one-third of their hits being an extra base hit (that’s about the average for the two current Series teams over the whole playoffs). So chance of him scoring by staying on first is (Meusel hits extra bases OR ( Meusel reaches first only AND next guy reaches first or better)), which is 1/30.400 + 2/30.400*0.400 = .24.
If Ruth steals second, the chance of scoring is just (Meusel reaches) or 0.400. So if Ruth steals successfully half the time, his chance of scoring by attempting a steal is 1/2* 0.400 = 0.200,
It’s worse to steal (0.2 vs 0.24), but barely. Given how rough the numbers I used were, I can’t say for sure that the odds were wrong for Ruth to try to steal. Certainly can’t say it was a clearly horrible decision.