This is always one of the saddest days of the year for me – the day after the World Series ends. It means there’s no more baseball to watch, winter’s on its way and, especially with the Argos in the tank, now I have to turn my sports-loving gaze to our struggling hockey team – always a soul crusher. Maybe the Raptors will give me some joy this time around.
It doesn’t help that the New York Yankees won the championships – big, bad, loaded. Kate Hudson mooning over steroid boy Alex Rodriguez, every other woman swooning over Derek Jeter – yuk. And it’s never good when a team buys a championship and that’s basically what the New York general manager Brian Cashman has accomplished.
I did, however, take some pleasure in seeing ex-Jay A.J. Burnett get rocked in his second World Series start. True, he opted for the money and he does pocket the cash as a World Series winner, but his wasn’t exactly a scintillating performance.
I do prefer when a series goes to the seven-game limit and was wishing that the Phillies could take it that far. I love watching the game, but that doesn’t mean a game has to last over four hours. The World Series trophy wasn’t given away last night until well after midnight.
Ridiculous.
Move it along please. At one point over last weekend, I was flipping between football and baseball and the gridiron players actually got two full plays, using 11 players, including their huddle, into the space of time it took the pitcher to throw one pitch – and that was without one of those many trips to the mound by the catcher.
Players need to show some discipline. Put a limit on how many times the batter can step out of the batter’s box during an at-bat – former Jays catcher Pat Borders used to step out after every pitch and open and close both velcro wristbands after every pitch, whether he swung at the previous offering or not. Come on. I like the idea of putting a time limit between pitches. Time to revive that concept.
Uber-pretentious commentator Tim McCarver kept intoning how important every pitch is but, really, the long pauses do nothing but allow for a lot of professional preeninge. Gee, I can feel a pitcher thinking, hope that close-up of me is good and long.
Make like Hideki Matsui instead. He gets into the batter’s box and doesn’t even take a practice swing. And that strategy certainly didn’t stop the World Series MVP. [rssbreak]
