But for the losing teams, now the outrage begins. Now comes the hate, blasting managerial decisions, turning on players, declaring the entire season a failure.
Before the playoffs these same fans were convinced their team in its current configuration was destined to win. Now they spot glaring holes in the offense, the pitching rotation, you name it. Now they blame Joe Buck.
It used to be fans of losing teams were disappointed. Now they’re angry. MLB does nothing to discourage that. In fact, their new slogan is “We play LOUD.”
Social media provides an outlet for everybody to vent. It’s not just three angry letters-to-the-editor anymore.
I hosted Dodger Talk for eight years, taking listener calls after games. I often needed to be in riot gear. Can you imagine the calls to New York sports stations over the last 24 hours?
So here are some of my observations.
I prefer to save my hate for Trump and anyone who supports him.
The final game of the ALCS was spectacular drama, whoever you rooted for.
For all the notes and stats Fox gave out, they missed that this was the very first post-season game in history where two wife-beater closers gave up two-run home runs in the 9th.
Fox desperately wanted the Dodgers vs. the Yankees and instead got the Astros vs. the Nationals. Don’t expect big ratings, despite two teams that are the best in baseball.
Baseball has become a slave to analytics but the playoffs prove that they don’t work during the post season. It makes no difference that you win 100 games during the regular year. You don’t face this level of competition every game, you don’t face 3rd, 4th, and 5th starters, hitters don’t see the same relief pitchers day in and day out, slumps get magnified, and unlikely heroes emerge that analytics can’t predict.
And don’t forget the choke factor. Some players rise to the occasion and others just do not.
With this new style of baseball everyone is trying to hit home runs. So the number of strikeouts is shameful. Yeah, you can hit 40 home runs during the season when a bunch are off of rag arm pitchers, but in a seven-game series with the season on the line and future Hall-of-Fame pitchers facing you, only the truly great ones hit two or three.
I am very much looking forward to this World Series. Both teams play with a lot of heart. (Do analytics have a category for that???) Both teams have great starting pitching and starting pitching wins series. The Nationals are a Wild Card team. They’ve had to battle and scratch the whole season. They’re used to pressure games. And they’re giant killers – toppling the mighty Dodgers. The Astros are a cohesive unit with zero quit and they too knocked out a heavyweight in the Yankees.
To me the big question is which team is balanced enough to win? Which team will score runs other than with home runs? Which team will put the ball in play more? Which team will whiff only ten times a game instead of sixteen? Which team will drive in more than two runners in scoring position? Which team will have angry callers in about a week?
39 comments :
I'm hoping we won't have a ton of angry callers this year in DC. The Astros are a the better team, and we're really happy just to make the World Series. Of course, that's what I'm telling myself now. It'll be a different story if we had a real chance to win and choke away a lead....
I watch as many national games as I can in Spanish. And no, I don't speak Spanish. But I understand the game well enough to know what's going on, I can tell by the announcers' cadence when something is going on, and I don't have to deal with the annoying blather.
Plus there is nothing like a home run call en espanol!
I’m picking the Astros to win. I just think they are more balance. I hope they give us the Scherzer/ Verlander matchup we are looking for. I’ve been called a NL traitor for wanting the Astros to win but as well as the Nats played and the Cards sucked, I just think the Houston is stronger. Besides...the used to be in the NL.
Pam, St. Louis.
Just for fun let's fact check Ken's post:
"The World Series begins tomorrow" - Ken's right
"Now they blame Joe Buck" - True. If your team is losing and Joe "Midnight Cowboy" Buck is behind the mic you'll shit on him. Everybody's talkin at yea Joe.
"It's not just three angry letters to the editor anymore" - LOL, remember that? People use to actually sit down at a desk with a piece of paper and a pen and write a note to a newspaper. Then they would put it in an envelope, stamp it and walk to a mailbox and let it slide in. Then before walking away open the little slot again to make sure the envelope had fallen inside. That was a good observation by Ken.
"I hosted Dodger Talk for eight years" - True. This was after Fraser but before "Going, Going, Gone"
"First time two wife-beater closers gave up two-run home runs in the 9th" - Okay, this one is controversial. Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman fired eight rounds into the ceilings and walls of a house during an argument with his girlfriend, wasn't his wife. He then dropped the gun and choked his girlfriend till she turned Dodger blue. This was in 2015 and the girlfriend refused to co-operate with police or press charges. He got a 30 game suspension. She's waiting the requisite 12 years before coming out with a book and telling her story, as per the #metoo guidelines.
Astros closer Roberto Osuna assaulted his girlfriend, not his wife, while with the Blue Jays. She was the mother of his child. He fled to Houston, she fled to Mexico and the kid is in MLB's child protection services farm system.
"And don't forget the CHOKE factor" - Please see above comment.
I moved to Texas two years ago and watch a lot of Astros games. They're good. Up and down the lineup. They've got nine guys that can hit. That will be mitigated a bit in an NL park, but it won't be enough. Astros in 6.
I too am looking forward to this matchup
Cardinal fan here. During Spring Training I thought the Cardinals had enough to win their division but I thought the Nationals would be the NL rep to the World Series. However by May I knew the Cards didn't have a chance.
For the rest of the season I said that anything they did well was smoke and mirrors. So I'm been pinpointing the Cardinal weaknesses (and there are many) since a month and a half before the All-Star game. And I also know that the front office and manager will not make any substantial moves in the off season to correct these areas and they will probably be in 4th place in 2020.
Born in New York, raised in Los Angeles.
Yeah, whatever.
As for blaming Joe Buck, I'm reminded of when The Vin made a mistake on a Giants-Cardinals playoff and the then-governor of Missouri, future attorney general and civil liberties destroyer John Ashcroft, publicly attacked him and demanded an apology, and Vin essentially said that he thought the governor had better things to do.
There's also the Phillies-Royals series where Phillies fans claimed Joe Garagiola was biased because he was from Missouri, and Royals fans claimed he was biased because he had been a National Leaguer. Sigh.
As for analytics, as much as I often hate them, I kind of wish Dave Roberts had stuck with them for the playoffs. Sigh again.
I'm with you, goodman.dl!!!
We Nats fans realize we don't have a snowball's chance to blow away the Astros, but the way our season has gone since #BabyShark entered the picture, one never knows what'll happen, at least at home, LOL!!
The premade home/away schedule is definitely NOT to our advantage.
Ken,
As I've stated many times before on your blog, I hate baseball almost as much as you hate Trump. And since the Dodgers aren't in it I have absolutely no interest in the World Series. Nevertheless, I may look in from time to time just to see if anything is happening. But, since it's baseball, the chances are nothing will be.
I've also said this before, as much as a dislike baseball I'd still watch it over cricket or the WNBA.
May the best team win.
M.B.
Washington in a World Series? I mean, it was weird when either side of Chicago got in the Series (even weirder that both the Sox and Cubs won), but we were in the pre-Code era the last time the Fall Classic came to the District. Somewhere, Douglas Wallop (author, "The Year The Yankees Lost The Pennant," adapted into the musical and movie "Damn Yankees") is smiling.
Having met and gotten autographs from Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Whitey Ford and Tom Tresh at a preseason game in florida in 1963 I am like an evangelical for Trump: Forever Yankees! This despite meeting Reggie Jackson years later and learning he was a complete asshole.
I'm with goodman.dl!!!
We Nats fans realize we don't have a snowball's chance to blow away the Astros, but the way our season has gone since #BabyShark entered the picture, one never knows what'll happen, at least at home, LOL!!
The premade home/away schedule is definitely NOT to our advantage.
I don't like the American League. I don't like a wild card team winning the World Series even more. Go Astros!
Also, has anyone ever met a real life Nationals fan?
“In fact, their [MLB’s] new slogan is “We play LOUD.”
As a concession to their fan base’s aging ears.
A part of me wanted a Yankees-Nationals World Series because that would have been an excuse for a revival of "Damn Yankees"- I could picture the Nats taking the field singing "You Gotta Have Heart". But no, Astros-Nationals is better. Both teams are likable, and we don't have to put with up with the obnoxious New York media.
I was not happy with Dodger fans beating up on Clayton Kershaw for game 5- I thought he showed a lot of the class in his talk with reporters afterwards. The proper punishment for Dodger fans would be for the ownership to do a Mariners style salary dump and field a 100 loss team next year.
I won't be that upset if the Nats lose. After suffering through years of playoff disappointments, it is just weird to see the opposing teams outfielder misplay a ball in the 9th, or to watch the Nats hit a grand-slam in the 10th. Almost seems like a violation of the laws of nature.
Any World Series without the Yankees is by definition a good World Series. And now my Mariners not only have the longest playoff drought in the four major sports leagues (18 years and counting), but are now also the only team in the majors to have never been in a World Series.
I can't imagine anything more soul-crushing than to be the host of a phone-in sports talk show. I can't even listen to one for more than about 90 seconds. Invariably, within that time limit some caller will say something incredibly moronic -- often so moronic, it's clear they don't even have a clue as to how moronic they are.
It's like an audio Trump rally, with bonus shouting about misapplied sports statistics.
I haven't watched MLB since the Mariners, who pushed through their publicly funded stadium, prevented a privately funded basketball/hockey arena next door in 2016. And to be honest, I don't miss it -- or the sport -- at all. My sports DVR has been filled with hockey, German and MLS soccer, rugby (English, international and the new American "Major League Rugby"), and the CFL. I just don't have room for baseball anymore. The only games I've seen since then are some minor league games and the College World Series.
As for this series, if I was watching, I'd be rooting for the Astros. Montreal, which has a rich baseball history (not just the Expos; Jackie Robinson made his minor league debut for the Montreal Royals) and a LOT of minor and recreational leagues (when I visited there in 2007, the French and English newspapers had multiple pages of local box scores), saw its loyal fanbase ruined by bad ownership, a bad stadium and MLB neglect, so I can never root for the Nationals. That said, the only positive for Washington making it there is that the Mariners are now the only MLB team never to make it to the World Series. A lot of Seattle sports fans feel that's just desserts for their incompetence and local business bullying.
That rant aside, I did see news that MLB is considering chopping as many as 40 or so minor-league teams from their pro affiliations. (One article: https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/10/18/mlb-minor-league-system-changes-proposal) Question: Your thoughts on this proposal, and tangent benefits/drawbacks? (E.g., I've read that the Yankees have eight farm teams while the average team has five; and there's the suggestion that this will lead to better pay for the minor league players, and I understand that's a huge issue.)
How did it go yesterday with the play?
I say Houston in 7... 6... 5... 4...
The odds are AGAINST the team who swept the Championship series from winning the World Series.
The teams that swept are 1-7 since the Championship series went to best of 7 back in 1985.
Only the Atlanta Braves of 1995 won.
Maybe it's the all that time off to get rusty or to think about things.
The Nationals will be "idle" for a week before the game in Houston.
The play went FANTASTIC. Kate Causey & Jamie Daniels were terrific and Paige Segal's direction was spot on. Big laughs. I was proud to know me. :)
Points (Runs?):
- Washington DC in the Serious (as Ring Lardner called it): might be fun if That Man In The White House shows up for a ceremony - someone hands him a baseball, and he spends the rest of the night trying to open it.
- Nostalgia Neuralgia: Can't remember the exact year, but the Cubs and the Padres had won the divisions, and the League Championship was best-of-five.
First two games were played in Chicago: Cubs won.
Next three games were played in San Diego: Padres won and took the series.
But before the fifth game, Wally Phillips, the morning drive guy at WGN Radio in Chicago, was demanding that the rubber game be switched to Chicago, so that the Padres wouldn't have the "tenth player" crowd advantage (and thereby the Cubs would win, as God intended).
Embarrassing, to say the least (and I was a Sox Fan - South Side Irish)…
- I once again need to thank everybody at this site for reminding me why my decision to stop following MLB at the onset of this century was a sound one.
My acid reflux thanks you profoundly.
I've almost completed withdrawal.
… almost …
… any time now …
The realistic Yankees fan (i.e. -- No one who's been calling Mike Francesa on WFAN today) knew that the pitching was probably going to get them in the series against the Astros. It was the Game 4 bomb out that really did them in, because they weren't going to go back to Houston and win Games 6-7 with the Astros' arm advantage.
It's a little bit smaller against the Nats, at least as far as the starters go. Houston should still win, but if Washington's current playoff run is due to the baseball gods really wanting to teach Bryce Harper a lesson in humility, the Nats could pull this off.
Awesome, Ken! Congratulations! Wish I could have been there.
By the way, Channel 4 here in the UK screened your and David's wonderful The Show Where Sam Shows Up episode of Frasier this week. I've actually used the "genetics takes a holiday" line in real life.
My first world series was the 1984 Tigers vs. Padres. I was starting pitcher for Detroit in game 1. I told Sparky Anderson to keep me in the game even though I was getting tired by the ninth inning. Steve Garvey hit a grounder, an easy out. Then Tony Gwynn hit a pop up to the infield.
The toughest was Rich "Goose" Gossage, who even though a pitcher, was a formidable batter. I struck him out.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch... https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/10/22/houston-astros-roberto-osuna-suspension
Could you imagine hosting "Dodger Talk" in Brooklyn?
GO ZOMBIE EXPOS!
I'm torn between supporting the 'stros - several played in Troy, NY for the Tri-City Valley Cats (short-season A level) and the Washington Nationals, who were all but given up for dead by Memorial Day weekend.
At least it's not the Red Sox.
A few notes:
Eight years of Dodger Talk! IIRC part of that was with a "co-host" who wouldn't go along with your funny. Glad that you got an on-air partner who was willing to (at least once) parody the call-in morons.
One of the glories of the DVR - easy to blast through the pre-game yak yak - and the "old school" mute feature fixes the in-game yak yak.
(nice to have good speakers in the TV room)
Alas, my DVR will not influence MLB to find another network - it's bad enough to hear the Fox second string on NFL games.
(not hatin' on Joe Buck however)
It's been a decade (more or less) since the Lakers looked like a contender. Seeing Lebron James in Laker Gold no longer bugs my eyes out. Anthony Davis in Lakers garb - very promising. Having Dwight Howard around and healthy - promising, too. How did the Lakes get Quinn from the Dubs? Quinn may well continue shooting 40% on threes. McGee, Rondo - looking real good. And get this, in preseason we (I) saw them working an offense somewhat tougher to defend than pick/roll.
I hear the Clippers are good too - so what?? I'm never rooting for the Clips.
I didn't realize this, but the last time a Washington D.C. team was in the World Series, the the brand of cigarette they smoked was a factor in their defeat...
https://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/ny-giants-smoke-camels/
Great writing. It's almost enough to get me interested in baseball.
Hot damn!!!!
https://wtop.com/washington-nationals/2019/10/sotos-hr-3-rbi-lead-nats-over-astros-in-world-series-game-1/
A day late on your World Series piece, but maybe you can address this in the future.
Sitting here watching Game 1 and wondering if you have any opinion on one of my pet peeves -- When did broadcasters decide that it was imperative that the volume level of the crowd noise be as loud as or louder than the volume of the announcers? I'd kinda like to hear what they're saying without blowing out my TV speakers.
I understand the concept that viewers should feel like they're at the ballpark, but even then you can hear what the buddies sitting next to you are saying, even if they're not exactly Vin Scully-level raconteurs.
When there's a walk-off home run, sure, feel free to crank that crowd mike up to 11. But when the count is 1 and 0 in the bottom of the second, keep it under 4 so we can hear the play-by-play and commentary on how often the batter has faced a southpaw pitcher who once dated his sister? (The batter's sister, not the pitcher's. That's not allowed in the American League.)
Anyway -- what's the deal with the crowd noise level?
I've been pulling for the Nats the whole time. Some recent events in the Astro's organization have made me pull harder for the Nats.
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