- The location - home of a hated rival?
- The stellar double plays the Mets turned?
- The buffet of horrendous defense served up by the opposing team and feasted on by the Mets?
- The way the lineup seemed to be letting a mediocre pitcher off the hook before an offensive explosion took place?
- The 7-inning gem by a young pitcher who doesn't seem like a question mark right now?
- The impressive 8th inning pitched by Ambiorix Burgos?
Now that I think about it, I know what it was. It was the winning, and the message it sent. Underestimate them at your peril. As special as last year was, I have a feeling that this year's team will be even more dominant.
Observations/Odds & Ends:
- I lost track of how many bad plays the Braves made in the field. The defensive ineptitude started early on, with Craig Wilson's inability to catch Reyes's foul pop-up in the 1st inning, giving Jose the opportunity to hit his first triple of the season. Chris Woodward also made a couple of bad plays in the field (including one that led to a Paul LoDuca "infield hit").
- That was a fantastic outing by Oliver Perez. Not only did he strike out 6 batters in 7 innings without issuing any walks, he had more groundouts than flyouts and threw just 82 pitches (55 for strikes). For a pitcher who has struggled so much over the past couple of years with his control and his flyball tendencies, this was a very encouraging sign.
- I know that every team must have at least one representative, but how the hell was Mark Redman an All-Star last year? You know a left-handed pitcher sucks when he gives up an extra-base hit to Jose Valentin (career slugging percentage when facing left-handed pitchers from the right side of the plate: .303).
- Interesting tangent from Ron, Keith, and Gary about 7th-inning stretch/post-game songs played at various ballparks. I vaguely remember Billy Joel's "New York State Of Mind" being played at Shea after games a few years back, and I always thought that was really cool.
- The Mariners/Indians game-that-technically-wasn't, in which Victor Martinez got hurt running to 1st base, should be a wake-up call to MLB. Baseball games played in the sort of weather conditions that Cleveland had today are not safe for the players on the field and not all that enjoyable for the fans in attendance, either. Certain cities are going to have cold weather and a strong possibility of snow in early April, and it would make sense to either have the teams that play in those cities start the season on the road or have the season start a bit later and schedule some doubleheaders.
3 comments:
Before we go blaming the MLB for the injury, do we know if he was properly stretchng and warming up pregame? Athletes in other sports play in cold conditions all the time, and running in the cold isn't something that generally causes an injury. People in the Northeast do it all the time without hurting themselves.
What is this dub-bull-hed-dur of which you speak? Absent player approval except under unusual circumstances, MLB teams cannot schedule day-night affairs to make up missed games, and playing traditional twinbills costs them their precious 81 gates, so don't count on it.
Now here's what is even stupider. Consider your northern cities which have domes: Minnesota & Toronto. Guess where they opened their seasons? On the road, at least partially at cold-weather sites which wound up getting snowed or colded out. Why these guys can't either start a little later, or use the warm (or warmable) sites they do have, is totally beyond me.
Before we go blaming the MLB for the injury, do we know if he was properly stretchng and warming up pregame? Athletes in other sports play in cold conditions all the time, and running in the cold isn't something that generally causes an injury. People in the Northeast do it all the time without hurting themselves.
Good point about the importance of proper warmups, but the situation in Cleveland yesterday wasn't just cold weather - it was a full-fledged snowstorm. I can understand that the Indians wanted to try and get their home opener in, but a baseball game should not have been played under those conditions.
What is this dub-bull-hed-dur of which you speak? Absent player approval except under unusual circumstances, MLB teams cannot schedule day-night affairs to make up missed games, and playing traditional twinbills costs them their precious 81 gates, so don't count on it.
Oh, well. I wish it weren't so - I remember going to a couple of doubleheaders at Shea when I was younger and how much fun that was.
Now here's what is even stupider. Consider your northern cities which have domes: Minnesota & Toronto. Guess where they opened their seasons? On the road, at least partially at cold-weather sites which wound up getting snowed or colded out. Why these guys can't either start a little later, or use the warm (or warmable) sites they do have, is totally beyond me.
The only explanation I could possibly think of is that the cold-weather teams might object to always starting the season on the road. Otherwise, trying to keep the early April games in warm-weather cities makes perfect sense - after all, the cities that are warm in April are most likely oppressively hot in July and August. Having lots of games in places like Miami and San Diego in early April means less games played in 30-degree weather and less games played in 100-degree weather. Good for the players, good for attendance, and makes too much sense to ever happen.
Post a Comment