Baseball Musings, 10/26/2005

World Series Game 3 Musings

Game 3 was long. I had enough time to leave work, go to a Pakistan Earthquake relief fundraiser (a series of short films), head to Whole Foods, come home and still watch 2 hours of baseball. Now that's long.

First, the good: The Chisox bullpen (after Politte, Cotts and Hermanson in the 8th) were lights out. How lights out? 6 IP, 0 hits, 0 R, 8K. Of course, they did issue 8 BB too, but none of them hurt. And heck, the Astros bullpen was great until they threw in their 2 #5 starters in the 14th: 7.1 IP, 2 hits, 0 R, 7K and 2 BB, lead by Chad Qualls who was just nasty for 3 innings. Ozzie Guillen must be in tune with the universe for using Geoff Blum in the double switch with Iguchi/Jenks instead of Pablo Ozuna. I've always liked Geoff Blum, he can play whatever position you want and doesn't have a terrible bat ... well at least better than Ozuna's (.251/.314/.391 career vs. .271/.307/.331 career). And Ozzie going to Mark Buehrle, in his first relief appearance since 2000, to close it out? Why the heck not? It worked and now Ozzie and the boys can be sipping champagne as early as this evening. And does anyone else think that Bobby Jenks is a golden-armed, younger version of Bob Wickman?

The bad: Ezequiel Astacio just fell apart after giving up the HR to Blum. I mean, Astacio had 2 outs after an amazing double play and then just threw a really bad pitch to Blum. Suddenly its 6-5, but then to give up single, single, walk, walk to the next 4 hitters and its 7-5 is just terrible. And yes, the only option left for Houston, short of the Rocket or Pettitte was Wandy Rodriguez, but couldn't Scrap Iron get Rodriguez in there sooner? However, in Garner's defense, I did enjoy Fox showing Garner throwing his stool across the dugout after Blum's HR. Speaking of Fox, Tim McCarver is an idiot. After Blum's HR, he said something like "the White Sox play mistake-free baseball". They do, do they? 3 errors and 2 unearned runs worth of "mistake free baseball"? Come on Tim, what you really meant to say is that the Chisox capitalize on the Astros mistakes (like Astacio's pitch). And Joe, yes, we get it, the game is going long. How many times do you have to remind us? Ah, if only Fox didn't have World Series TV rights until 3012.


Game 4 Preview
Well, the Chisox could be WS champs tonight, exactly one year after the Red Sox won it. No lunar eclispse to portend victory this time though. Freddy Garcia vs. Brandon Backe, and I'd have to put my money on Garcia. Sox look like a team possessed and they win it tonight. Hopefully not at midnight Pacific, but they will win it nevertheless.

Other baseball musing

Larry Bowa (Third Base Coach) to the Yankees - Am I the only one amused by this? Yes, Bowa will be such a calming influence on the Yankees staff. Yes. That's it. Imagine if Torre did leave and they hired Big Lou Piniella? Wow, I'd love to see Piniella and Bowa on the same staff. Heck, why not hire Lloyd McClendon as first base coach? And Zombie Billy Martin as bench coach. Now that would be excellent.

The Theo Epstein Saga - If this isn't the biggest pile of Boston sport media bu*$#@it ever, I don't know what is. Epstein will be back. Ah Boston, calm down a bit, OK?