And let’s not forget the fact that the Braves outscored the Yankees by quite a wide margin in this WS, IIRC.
The Braves get pretty much no respect (outside of the commentators and other people who know a lot about baseball) despite everything they’ve done over the last twelve years. And they’re gonna win the division by a healthy margin again this year (knock on wood) despite losing probably their two best pitchers and most of their really good bullpen from last year.
So hah.
Seven games just isn’t enough to prove to me that one baseball team is better than another. After all, the Angels won the WS last year.
Press, I’d say what’s remarkable about the Braves’ dynasty is not how many times they haven’t won it all, but how many times they’ve gone so far.
Think of the Buffalo Bills, '90-'93. You could probably make a pretty strong case for that being one of history’s Great Teams, but they will be eternally thought of as losers because they lost four consecutive Super Bowls. Never mind the fact that they’re the only team in history to play in four consecutive Super Bowls; the fact of having lost all four is what sticks in everyone’s mind. Well, that and Scott “Wide Right” Norwood blowing the *$^&% kick against the Giants.
The Braves’ image won’t rival the Yankees any time soon, but consider: From 1991-2002, excluding the strike-shortened '94 and '95 seasons because they make the math more confusing and I’m lazy, the Braves were 986-634 (60.8%), while the Yankees in those same seasons were 920-700 (56.8%).
Everything in the above two posts is all well and good, but it does nothing to hurt the point that I’m making.
Yeah, the Braves are a spectacular team. Yeah, I respect them. Yeah, they deserve respect. Unfortunately, they just can’t seem to win it all. And the bottom line is, you can get as far as you want, you’re not going to earn everybody’s respect unless you actually have something to show for it.
As I said before, I’m not trying to start a flame war or anything here. That being said, I’m an Eagles fan. Know what that means? I know what it’s like to cheer for a team that has every right to win it all and DOESN’T.
I am remembering a Pirates centerfielder back in the early 90’s who turned in 2 unassisted triple plays in the same game. Maybe it was unassisted double plays, where he came running in, caught the ball low and his momentum carried him into second base, as the man on second had taken off, horribly misjudging the flyball.
So is SCSimmons gonna tell us how that unassisted triple play was pulled off by an outfielder?
I saw this play too. As a Cardinal fan, I could just say DAMN!
Then I ponder the reasoning behind LaRussa calling a hit and run with the pitcher at the plate, followed again by DAMN!
But then we won anyway, so it’s all good.
BTW, anyone see Ray King’s wild pitch during an intentional walk to Pujols the game before this one? How the hell does that happen? Admittedly, though - for the sake of fairness - that doesn’t fall into the same league of stupidity as Cardinal outfielder Vince Coleman (who stole more than 100 bases in each of his first 3 seasons) getting run over by the automatic tarp roller. The fastest guy on a team built for speed getting run over and injured by a tarp roller unfurling at the lightning fast speed of oh… say 2mph or so.
The pitcher in question is a pretty good hitter. Around a .250 average and 7 RBIs. You’ve got regular position players that only hit about .250 and the low RBIs can be chalked up to being last in the order and only playing once a week anyway.
Yeah, I know Woody Williams is better than your average pitcher with a bat, but there’s no outs and the top of the order coming up. I just don’t see why he didn’t stick with the bunt to get them into scoring position and let Bo Hart (hovering around .300) try to do something. And IIRC, Jim Edmonds would have been up to the plate after Hart. Either would have been preferable than the pitcher, IMO.
Ray King is, IMNSHO, not a pitcher but actually a robot built by a rival team. The robot is designed to blow leads at inoppurtune moments, come in and load the bases without getting an out, and generally cause the bullpen to have to work much harder. I pity Kevin Gryboski especially, who has to come in and clean up after King.
King can be so bad at times that I’d believe it if you told me he managed to walk someone on three pitches.
BTW:
Either you or, among other people, the ELIAS Sports Bureau is off. Morgan and Miller said the last unassisted triple play in the NL occured in the early 90s, true, but there was only one. A list of unassisted triple plays (excluding Furcal’s).
And that link, providentially (literally), takes me to this factoid:
Paul Hines, OF, Providence May 8, 1878 Boston-NL.
That’s the entry for the first unassisted triple play. However, this cite disputes the claim. This site offers a look at the life of the man. Interesting story.
I must have missed the day in Geography class where we covered the area around the fruited plain? Wherever is it?
Maybe you can be my baseball wife, and fizzy and your husband can complain about how boring baseball is (hint, dear: I don’t always watch it because it’s fascinating. I like to RELAX!)
BTW, Jaade, you might try mlb.com’s radio service. It might be a pay service now, but it’s worth looking into if you haven’t already. Radio commentary is usually better than color commentary anyway.
I saw it, and was absolutely delighted by it. I’m happy it was Furcal who did it, too. He’s been struggling defensively, and this has got to be a great confidence-booster.
Jaade, there’s also ESPN’s GameCast, which lets you “watch” a game over the Internet. It’s what I use when TBS isn’t showing Braves games and I’m not in the mood to hear Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. You can access the GameCasts through ESPN’s MLB Scoreboard page.
Pretty durn cool. Although it’s still just my second favorite play by a Brave named Raphael. In 1997 Raphael Belliard hit his first home run since 1987. The longest time ever netween home runs. He just a little guy and was so surprised he almost didn’t believe it.
gonna hafta chime in in agreement with the Ray King takes… He throws hard… but he ain’t no pitcher. They put him in middle relief to get one maybe two outs… and he can’t do that without giving up a run or two…
I never fail to groan when I see him up in the 'pen warming up.
How he gets in so many games I’ll never understand.
The reason he gets in is that he doesn’t waste his arm getting runners out, he throws 5, maybe 15 pitches, and then two other guys have to come in and mop up for him. By throwing more pitches than that, and by making them quality pitches. So while he’s available for 3 days’ work in a row, several guys can only go one, or two.
And Jaade can still be my baseball wife as long as fizzy doesn’t mind.
