With all the debating teams on cable TV and radio, here’s an idea that may be worth shelving Carmelo Anthony issues for a few minutes:
If Major League Baseball was supposed to be played the way it’s now played, would it have survived for over 100 years? Would it now be a popular spectator sport or would it exist — if it still existed — as a board game played with turns to roll dice or spin a wheel?
Friday’s Red Sox-Yankees big pennant-race game nevertheless was loaded with standard new-age ridiculous that betrayed common, applicable sense, as both managers took turns trying to lose it.
Boston led, 3-0; starter Eduardo Rodriguez had allowed no runs and just two hits through six. But he was pulled. Why? He had to be pulled. But why pull a guy pitching a shutout after six? Because manager John Farrell has a guy for such occasions, one assigned to pitch the seventh, his “seventh-inning guy.”
And so enter Matt Barnes, who allowed no hits, no runs. Then out he went, because the Red Sox have themselves a new “eighth-inning guy,” Addison Reed, who soon was blasted for four earned runs, and soon the Red Sox would be losers — despite Joe Girardi’s attempt to counter-blow the game with his “ninth-inning guy.”
Let’s review: Farrell blew a 3-0 lead and the game by removing two consecutive pitchers who’d allowed two hits through seven innings. Does that make sense to you? Of course, not. But that’s how big-league baseball is now managed; everyone works off a copy of the fix-what-ain’t-broken plan.
Then Girardi tried to return the favor because he thinks that anyone he names his closer — Aroldis Chapman his latest — is Mariano Rivera. Girardi, too, is an assigned-inning manager and he’s going to make it work no matter how many times it doesn’t — and it doesn’t because it can’t. You can’t draw a straight on every deal.
Chapman walked the bases loaded but Yanks escaped, 5-4 winners, due to ridiculous base running — Eduardo Nunez tagged and tried to move to third on an RBI fly to left — and decent one-bounce throw but better catch-and-tag by Todd Frazier.
Applied fantasy has replaced here-and-now baseball. And another game that should have run no more than a logical, comfortable three hours, ran 3:40, ending near 11 p.m., as only one of the two managers who regularly throw in winning hands, could lose.
Look at all the box scores, every day; the pitching changes, the residual score changes, the times of games. You’ll find a bunch that once would have never appeared because they’d have made no sense. But pitching senselessness — extractions of healthy teeth — now rules The Game.
And running to first base remains optional.
Players, keep the faith
There’s an old gag about the priest at a basketball game. When a player at the free-throw line crosses himself before taking the shot, the priest is asked, “Does that help?”
“It does,” says the priest, “but only if he can shoot free throws.”
I realize it’s impolitic to intrude on individuals’ spirituality, but lately big-league stadia seem confused with houses of worship. The theatrical seems tethered to the unremarkable; there’s no separation of church and fate.
Saturday, as seen on FS1 and YES, Boston’s Christian Vazquez was at bat when he blessed himself before/after every pitch. It was hard to tell if he expected trouble on the previous pitch or was trying to avoid it on the next.
Friday on SNY, Phils’ reliever Hector Neris lost the lead in the ninth on Amed Rosario’s first homer, then was seen walking off the mound, removing his hat and gesturing toward the heavens as if he was playing Job in the Sunday school play or looking to redirect the blame.
In the ninth, Mets’ reliever AJ Ramos blessed himself then pointed to the sky after striking out Jorge Alfaro to beat the 42-71 Phils. Apparently, Ramos’ 4.12 ERA was a matter of providence.
Boston reliever Fernando Abad, Friday, finished throwing his warm-ups, stared skyward then kissed the ball.
Again, I’m not treading on anyone’s faith, but such deep personal reflection strikes me as moments better enacted in private, not as a matter of public theater.
CBS gets hole-in-one for interview
For once, I was happy a network cut from live coverage of a major to a post-round interview with a player.
Saturday in the PGA Championship, Canadian Graham DeLaet did the astonishing, shooting 6-under on four consecutive holes. It was nearly 7-under, but his tee-shot to a short par-4 lipped out. DeLaet went birdie, eagle, eagle, birdie on holes 13 through 16.
DeLaet then came across as a sweetheart; humble, polite, grateful, surprised and excited. He and CBS made a fan.
On the other hand, Saturday, with the leaders still playing, CBS left for a 45-second on-camera discussion between Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo — before going to commercials.
It’s a continuing crime against the good senses for ESPN to produce Little League telecasts. Saturday, during the New Jersey-Maryland LLWS qualifier, a 12-year-old Jersey kid batted while ESPN posted his hitting stats — compared to those of MLB leaders.
How long should Ezekiel Elliott be suspended for alleged repeated abuse of his ex-girlfriend? Six games are too many? I don’t know, but given the video of him trying to expose the breasts of an unsuspecting woman who was watching a St. Patrick’s Day parade this year, Elliott, Ohio State man, should have been arrested, then suspended for at least six games.
Surprised to hear Michael Kay, during Yanks-Jays, Thursday, give the Yanks’ run-differential stats. Thought that stat died of embarrassment after the 1960 World Series, when the Yanks outscored Pittsburgh, 55-27, but lost the series.
Reader Dan Stevens asks if anyone finds it odd Noah Syndergaard, out with a torn muscle in his throwing shoulder, recently was seen hurling a spear in “Game of Thrones”? Heck, he might have to undergo Sir Thomas of John surgery.
Watching 6-foot-4 Titans QB Marcus Mariota standing taller than many of his teammates, Saturday against the Jets on Ch. 2, brought to mind Mike Francesa’s authoritative insistence that Titans’ then-coach Ken Whisenhunt wouldn’t draft Mariota, because, “he doesn’t like short quarterbacks.”
John Sterling Amended Call of the Week: “Here’s the pitch to [ Justin ] Smoak … low … but called a strike by home plate umpire Jerry Meals .”
Reader D.B., Delmar, N.Y., claims the Yoenis Cespedes bobblehead figurine will “only bobble when it feels like it.”