It’s pretty short. I’m a life-long baseball fan who loves the Dodgers. I fell in love with a life-long baseball fan who loves the Indians. We adopted each others’ teams. I don’t do half-assed fandom, so the Indians are a very, very close second to the Dodgers for me, and because I’m now on the east coast, I see a lot more Indians’ games (both on TV and in person) than I do Dodgers’ games.
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Asimovian**
Dodgers fan since 1985
Indians fan since 2010
During last night’s shellacking of the Steelers (17-3), the Bears had a rookie, Ian Happ, who finished a triple shy of the cycle. The thing is, though, is that he didn’t know it. He hit a ball down the left field line, where it was caught very easily by Starling Marte. Happ, however, didn’t see the catch, and kept motoring around the bases, ending up at third, only to be told he was out.
I think it is fair to say Greg Bird still has to actually prove he is a major league hitter. Can’t complain about those other guys though.
This is probably not a common opinion, but I think Gary Sanchez will have a more impressive career than Aaron Judge.
You fell in love with an Indians fan???
Oh, the things we do for love. 
In fairness to her, she warned me, way back in 2010, not to become a fan. “Don’t do it,” she said. “They’ll break your heart.” She wasn’t wrong.
But it’s been a lot more fun than I thought it would be having a second team. Fun when they were bad, and even more fun these last few years. And it’s led to enjoyable moments like the time I baffled the hell out of Indians’ secondary radio broadcaster Jim Rosenhaus back in 2014, who could not understand how in the world a Dodger fan (we were on the field at Dodger Stadium, and I was in full Dodger regalia) would recognize and call out an Indians radio man.
That is a fair assessment. Sanchez if he can settle his defense back down is playing a far harder position than RF as Catcher. His bat is outstanding and his arm is great. But there is a fair chance Judge & Sanchez will be the core of the equivilent of the next “Core 4” the Yankees produce. Bird needs to stays healthy and produce consistantly on a major league level.
They’ve turned it on at just the right time, and with some key veterans yet to return from injuries.
Assuming a healthy Andrew Miller, they look like AL pennant favorites. Without him (and forced to depend on less than overpowering relievers including an on-and-off Cody Allen) the bullpen is a question mark.
Agreed. Getting back Miller, Kipnis and Chisenhall would make me really happy. I have a feeling we aren’t going to see Brantley again this season.
Also important: keeping Trevor Bauer away from toys with sharp edges.
Prediction: despite risking certain arrest, someone will fly a drone into whatever road stadium he pitches in during the playoffs, attempting to land it near the mound. You read it here first. (No, it won’t be me.)
The question that demands an immediate answer is:
Wha da FUCK has happened to the Dodgers??!?
I believe it is called a losing streak. Terrible things they are.
Uh…reality? Much like Judge… Sample size.
No! The Dodgers are the Chosen Ones! They must conquer!
Oh, well. At least the Giants are cratering in historic fashion.
Reports, as yet unconfirmed by the teams, that Justin Verlander is headed to the Astros.
As a Tiger fan, I knew it was coming, and it had to happen, but it still stings.
Looks like I’m rooting for the Astros here on out.
The Giants were robbed of a home run tonight because the umpires in New York apparently have no idea what the ground rules are at AT&T Park. The call was made correctly on the field, but overturned by the replay officials.
Here’s the video. The ground rule states that the green ‘roof’ atop the brick wall is not within the field of play; if a ball hits that roof, it is by rule a home run. The replay official overruled the home run call and declared it ‘fan interference’.
Even if the call had stood, the Giants would still have been down by 2 in the 9th, and probably would have lost the game anyway…but this was a case of replay doing exactly the opposite of what it’s supposed to do: taking a correct call on the field and changing it to a patently incorrect one.
Happy September, folks. Come on over!
It’s September. Now we start getting a sense of what the teams really look like, what their chances of winning next month are. Moneyball time.
I have to now come to the conclusion that one of two things must be true;
- MLB only spends about fifty bucks a year on its entire replay review system or
- There is something super difficult about this process I don’t understand.
Forget for a moment how badly the call was blown; why did this take four minutes to review? There are four angles on the ball being caught just off the top of the wall, and at least two clearly, unambiguously show the ball was above the wall and fair. It should have taken maybe - maybe - sixty seconds to make that determination. It was very clear to me, right away. So why did it take four minutes?
Alright, now let’s go back to whether the call was blown - of course it was. So in addition to the fact that I managed, at home, to determine for sure whether the ball was fair or foul (it was fair) and whether it was caught above the green part of the wall or not (it was) do you know how long it took me to Google up the AT&T Park ground rules? Fifteen seconds. And in five seconds I saw the rule that says a ball hit there is a home run.
There is no reason on earth why this call should not have been made right, and in less than one minute.
I will go back again to something I said in the King of Baseball thread; the only reason baseball officiating is limited to four umpires is simply inertia. There’s no logical reason why it should continue to be this way.