Baseball 2021 Post Season

[GentlemanJim]

With the first Wildcard game now on the books, The Boston Red Sox advance to the next round, and the New York Yankees go home and begin planning for next year.

[1960'sTVfan]

I didn't have a feeling one way or the other with the Yankees/Red Sox game, Boston ended up winning and advances to play vs. Tampa Bay.

I do have a feeling about the Cardinals/Dodgers game and I think the Cardinals can pull off the upset so I'm choosing St. Louis for the win, will see what happens.

[GentlemanJim]

I've been involved with several discussions with other fans lately, who feel as you do. Without their own team involved they claim to have little interest.

I'm a little different. I'll always be a Tigers fan first and foremost, but perhaps because I've lived in so many other cities that have their own baseball teams (before every team owned their own sportsnet with national distribution) as a fan of the game I had to learn to enjoy other teams, or otherwise see only 6 games per year when my Tigers came visiting.

So, even though I don't have the heavy emotional investment that I would have if the Tiger's were playing, I can still enjoy a good baseball game, with other teams playing. I just have particular aspects of gameplay that appeal to me most.

When they tagged out Judge at home plate last night, I was ecstatic....because I knew that play was ripping the guts out of Yankee fans everywhere.

Or, like when a batter barrels-up squarely on a pitch and you hear that unmistakable "thonk" that tells you that ball ain't coming back...I love the expression on pitchers faces before they even bother to turn around to witness the inhumanity. Or watching an entire stadium of rowdy poor-winner fans suddenly fall silent as they witness a bases loaded double turn their worlds upside down.

You can't find theater any better than that, IMO. Like last night after the final out was recorded, the Yankee players still standing like statues in their dugout, struggling to process that it was all over.....

What could possibly be better than that?

[1960'sTVfan]

That's how it always is with these baseball playoffs, the players on the losing teams with blank stares on their faces as they come to terms with the fact that their season is over.

With the A's not in the playoffs this year, I'm not watching the games on TV but I follow the results on the internet.

My American League pick to play in the world series this year is Tampa Bay.

My National League pick to play in the world series this year is the winner of tonight's wild card game, so it's either the Cardinals or Dodgers.

Of course, these picks could turn out to be incorrect but it's just for the fun of it and I have no money riding on any of this.

[GentlemanJim]

Right here is my favorite play of last night's AL wild card game. Insane that he tried to go all the way to score



And here it is from another angle, it looks as though even the umpire is enjoying himself?

[1960'sTVfan]

^That replay from last nights game sort of looks like Karma coming back to bite the Yankees 20 years later with reference to Derek Jeter's famous flip to home plate vs. Oakland in 2001.

[GentlemanJim]

Here's another one from last night's game. Typical Yankee arrogance. Giancarlo Stanton in the first inning, he think's it's gone, stands at home plate to admire his work, goes into his trot....and then about at 29 seconds on the clock realizes he's hit what could have been a double, except now he's turned that into a single.

[1960'sTVfan]

^I'm assuming that Stanton misjudged it, he thought he had hit a homer but the ball bounced off that tall left field wall and he ended up with a single.

[GentlemanJim]

Yeah, but his hubris cost him an extra base.

Self confidence is nice, but when it starts costing your team production, I think it deserves scrutiny.
One of the things that historically has impressed me about the Yankees, is the way they run-out routine grounders in the infield, putting pressure on their opponents fielders to execute flawlessly. Some times the added pressure pays off.
The tigers have a couple sluggers who, if the ball they hit is not over the heads of the infielders, they go into this trot that assumes they are already out, and the execution is a mere formality.

Miguel Cabrera, everyone knows that he is no speedster, but in one of the last few games of the season, he hit a hot grounder to third base, went into his death trot, and the third baseman bobbled the ball, and despite the trot, the throw only beat the runner to first base by a step. It's especially vexxing when your team is behind by a run or two, there are other runners on base, but due to the lackadaisical effort by the batter...inning over!

An additional behavior I find humorous, so long as it's not my team doing it, is the "bat flip" on long fly outs. Over confidence is toxic, IMO.

[1960'sTVfan]

One of the basic rules of baseball is to hustle and run full speed to 1st base on infield grounders because it does put a little extra pressure on the defense and there's always a chance the opponent can err or misplay. A player who lazily runs to 1st base should be fined for lack of hustle.

Something that really irks me is when a batter swings at a pitch that's way out of the strike zone. While it's true that once the baseball leaves the pitchers hand, the batter has only a split second to decide whether to swing or not, but some guys are just undisciplined or don't have a good eye at the plate and will swing and miss at pitches that are not in the strike zone.

[GentlemanJim]

Welp, the National League wild card game is on the books, Dodgers with with a walk-off in the bottom of the 9th.

So far I'm 2 for 2 with my picks

[1960'sTVfan]

I guess the Dodgers showed last night why they won 106 games, St. Louis put up a good fight but were kept scoreless after scoring a run in the 1st inning.

Dodgers vs. Giants should prove to be quite the series.

Blake Treinen pitched for the A's a few years ago, he was actually their closer but of course the cheapskate A's didn't keep him and allowed him to leave and now he's having success with the Dodgers.

Max Muncy is currently injured but he also was with the A's previously. His stats with the A's weren't impressive but since joining the Dodgers and in the LA/Hollywood spotlight he's become a star player.

[GentlemanJim]

Well, as the divisional series unfurls, the White sox appear to have serious malfunction, the Giants appear to be who we thought they were, the Red Sox have demonstrated that they do not intend to go quietly into that good night, and the Brewers have thus far contained the Braves in a way that I didn't expect.

[GentlemanJim]

With the divisional series almost concluded, my only miscue thus far was in picking Tampa Bay over Boston. Tampa let too much proven talent get away over the past 12 months and was relying too much on "up and comers"... I should have known better.

But the Astros and Braves delivered pretty much exactly what I expected out of them.

Interesting side story with the White Sox being so sure that their opponents are intentionally throwing at their first baseman Jose Abreu. This was a big deal in the final regular season series against my Tigers, that almost erupted into a war at that point. Now White Sox manager continues his accusations on the national stage.

Funny thing was, the White Sox having already hit Astros' Jose Altuve earlier in the game, by the time the White Sox 8th inning came around...there were 2 outs, no one on base, Abreu at bat..and knowing first hand Abreu's hot-headed temperament....the thought occurred to me "Why not plink him?".....and 2 pitches later, they did!! LOL. Seemed almost poetic to me.

As the post season currently stands:


Go Giants!!

[opus]

That wasn’t a swing.