2012 Baseball Thread

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Mister Tee
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Re: 2012 Baseball Thread

Post by Mister Tee »

Don't know if this is quite the appropriate place for this, but I ran into it on The Facebook today, and thought it was really funny:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater
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Re: 2012 Baseball Thread

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Thanks a lot, guys. I'm a bit exhausted today but it feels great. It's a good time of year for a team to go on a 7-game win streak, huh? Tee, you're absolutely right that short series like this aren't very gratifying for fans whose own team isn't in the mix. My favorite series have always been the ones that go to the wire. From my perspective, though, this series sweep was extremely gratifying. The Giants just dominated, showing without doubt that they are the champions. My nerves and blood pressure also appreciate the relatively easy series.

There's a lot of talk of a "dynasty," and some say that in baseball winning two championships in three years does constitute a dynasty. I'm pretty sure that the Giants will remain very competitive with the core group of players they have, but this game is just too unpredictable. Come Spring, all bets are off. For now, though, I'm just going to let this soak in. Who knows if it will ever happen again in my lifetime.
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Re: 2012 Baseball Thread

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Congratulations indeed, danfrank. And what a shame Damien couldn't have been here for this -- after waiting 50+ years for a championship, he would have seen two in three years as beyond his wildest dreams.

It must be said, though, that mere baseball fans are not so lucky. The Series was, while competitive in most of the games, too lopsided as an overall contest to rouse much excitement. Roger Angell once wrote that a four-game World Series never feels fully engaged -- it's like a fireworks show that only lasts three or four minutes. (He wrote this about the 1966 Series, where the Dodgers were even more offensively challenged than the Tigers here or the Yanks in the LCS -- scoring two runs in the first three innings of Game 1, and not a single one thereafter) I'd hoped last year's 7-game match-up was a sign of more to come, but instead the trend of recent years was underlined: in the past 24 years, we've only had five Series go the seven limit. Meantime, a full eight Series were over in four games, with five more only going five. The news is even worse since 1997: six four-game sweeps, four more that only went five. This lack of intense competition is bound to be damaging to the sport in the long run (and I say this as a fan of one of the teams that contributed to the short-series trend).

Of course, it can turn around. In the 70s/80s, Super Bowls were routinely blowouts; now they're close and exciting on an almost annual basis. Hopefully baseball can manage the same soon.

And, it goes without saying, the brevity of the Series rarely matters to fans of the winning team. So, to end where I began: congtratulations, danfrank, and your championship team.
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Re: 2012 Baseball Thread

Post by Bog »

Wow...just wow!

Sincere congrats to danfrank (and dear Damien) from a still emotionally hobbled Reds fanatic. That was the performance of a lifetime...and Dodger money be damned...I think this pitching core is in it for another decade or close! I look forward to the potential Reds/Giants playoff rematch. I don't however look forward to the playoff juggernaut attitude the Giants and Bochy will now have for the rest of their respective careers.

Spring training in 4 months!
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Re: 2012 Baseball Thread

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Boy, my Giants are making it look too easy. Playing from behind or playing from ahead, it doesn't seem to matter. I'm really happy that they're playing such good ball. The defense has been beautiful to watch (except for Hunter Pence, who gets it done, but not beautifully), and the starting pitchers are all bringing it at the right time. And our bullpen is stellar, as usual. Who knew that Lincecum would find his footing as a reliever? Bochy, though he looks and talks like a total lunk, is a baseball genius. Two shutouts in a row against the Tigers, who were only shut out twice the whole season. Amazing! Just one more to go: Let's see what happens tomorrow.
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Re: 2012 Baseball Thread

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I did want to offer congratulations to danfrank and FilmFan before they face off tonight in the survival round.

I rooted heavily for the Giants over the last few games, because I didn't want to see two 88-win teams fight for the championship, nor see the Cards with prospect of back-to-back titles when in each case they slipped into the playoffs at the last second based on the ever-weakening wild card rules. I hate to see baseball turn into hockey.

Obviously I was unhappy to see my guys go down so ignominiously. It's hard to think it could have gone any differently when, outside of one inning, they barely pushed across a run. But I can't help but feel a slight shift in the wind in Game 1 might have changed everything. If we've forgotten, the Yankees loaded the bases in both the first and second innings. The first ended with a legitimately stellar play by Peralta (robbing ARod, who hardly needed the bad luck). But the second inning rally was aborted by the fluke bounce off Fister and then the egregiously bad out call on Cano at first. This was crucial because a run would unmistakably have scored (the bases being full) and, more to the point, Fister, at almost 50 pitches and having just been hit on the hand, might well have been taken out (especially if another hit followed -- though that we can never know). Instead, having been reprieved by the call, Fister suddenly turned untouchable.

And yet...when the Yanks miraculously rallied for four runs in the 9th -- including yet another home run from the unquenchable Ibanez -- I don't think there was a Yankee fan anywhere who didn't feel they'd win the game and maybe the series...until Jeter went down with a crash. After that, it seemed like they were figting too many head winds; it didn't surprise me they flailed from that point on.

So...it's pretty hard for me to root for the Tigers (also because, a Tiger fan friend reminds me, the last two Tiger championships -- in '68 and '84 -- were ill omens for the upcoming presidential election). But I'll try to enjoy the Series come what may.
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Re: 2012 Baseball Thread

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I'm also missing Damien, my fellow Giants fanatic. What an amazing postseason for my boys in orange and black! Six elimination games? No problem! They're just playing with a ton of heart. And the Cards, frankly, flailed and collapsed. It was very gratifying to see a journeyman player like Marco Scutaro play the series of his life, win the NLCS MVP, and establish a legacy that Giants fans will never forget. Now, onto the World Series! Who knows what might happen against the Tigers, but it's been a fantastic ride so far.
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Re: 2012 Baseball Thread

Post by Sonic Youth »

You're breaking my heart. But at least he was around to watch the 2010 championship.
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Re: 2012 Baseball Thread

Post by FilmFan720 »

Oh, where is Damien when we need him? :(
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Re: 2012 Baseball Thread

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Yes, it's been quite the postseason. You never know what's going to happen in this crazy-making game. Bog, although as a (huge) Giants fan I was quite pleased with the outcome of the comeback series win over your Reds, I almost felt sorry for Dusty. After being down 0-2 I thought for sure that the Reds would win, and I planned to root for them all the way. I always felt that Dusty was a solid manager, but he made some clear mistakes and historically he doesn't manage aggressively enough in the postseason. And, yes, you'll recover, Bog. The baseball heart is easily broken but is very resilient when Spring comes around.

In 2010 I just had a strong feeling about the Giants, but don't have that feeling this year. You never know, though. In some ways we're a better team than 2010, but the starting pitching has been faltering of late. I'm going to the game tomorrow night and am very excited! Unlike Sonic, I would be very jazzed to see a Giants-Tigers WS. I would certainly take a Giants-Yankees one as well, but after the Yankees lost their second in a row at home it seems unlikely that will happen. Of course we need to get past those pesky Cardinals, who could go all the way again. Tee, though I'm not a fan of your Yankees, I was pretty upset about what happened to Jeter last night. The small consolation is that he got his 200th postseason hit--an absolutely astonishing statistic--before he got hurt. I imagine the Yankees and their fans are feeling quite deflated at this point.
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Re: 2012 Baseball Thread

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As you could only imagine as a die hard Reds fanatic here in Ohio...I've had a blank, inconsolable stare since about Tuesday at 10pm, when back to back errors by our two best defensive players brought home the winning run. With the pitching clusterf$&@ we had I actually felt we had botched the chance in what really felt like the Reds year. We did have two more chances, but having to make the wholesale changes to the pitching roster and rotation at the last minute combined with Dusty's cavalier attitude about all the proceedings, just didn't mesh well and naturally the Giants made history. We miss you Damien!

I don't know if I'll ever recover this letdown....go Bengals?? (always suck)...go Buckeyes?? (nothing to play for).....nope...long winter
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Re: 2012 Baseball Thread

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Hmph. And they say Yankee fans are rude??

But yeah, I think the Yanks' post-season ends here. They're a great unit of veterans, but they've gotten a little too old. And all the other teams I wanted to see advance in case the Yankees don't make it got eliminated... the Orioles for their great underdog story, the A's for Billy Beane, and the Nats because in this election year I want to show my support for centralized government. So, go Yankees! But a Tigers-Giants/Cardinals World Series just doesn't enthuse me.
Last edited by Sonic Youth on Sun Oct 14, 2012 9:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2012 Baseball Thread

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Go Tigers!! Yankees suck.
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2012 Baseball Thread

Post by Mister Tee »

Life makes me late on everything these days, but a few words about the already-underway post-season. It's not going to be the same without Damien declaring his Giants beloved of god and spitting on my Yanks (if the two should actually face off in the Series, I'll miss him even more).

The first round has all too often been a three-and-out stepping stone to the more seriously contended Championship Series, but, boy howdy, not this year. MLB got a dream outcome: all four series going five, each in a different way. Two teams went up 2-0; one of the teams came all the way back, one fell short. In the two series that started 1-1, the home team for Game 5 won 1 and lost 1. One Wild Card succumbed, one moved on. And what games! Every one of the five in the Yankee/Oriole series was seriously in doubt to the 9th if not beyond. There were one-run wins galore. We saw game outcomes reversed in the bottom of the 9th in Game 3 (Yanks/O's), Game 4 (Tigers/A's ), and, most cruelly, Game 5 (Cards/Nats) (and one other, Giants/Reds, where the victor survived a monumental last inning scare). It's hard to imagine round two matching this, but we'll keep watching.

After recent outcomes, I'd never bet on winners. The Giants seem stronger than the high-80s-win Cards, but that didn't seem a handicap to St. Louis last year. It's a rare pleasure to see the prrevious two World Champions fight it out for the pennant.

As for the rematch beween my guys (and FilmFan's)...the Yankee rotation is by any standard leagues above what they had in the series last year, when Nova, Garcia and Burnett started four of the five games -- Pettitte, Kuroda and Hughes is like having a brand new team. The offense was barely there against Baltimore, and will be facing better pitching...but Granderson seems to have come out of his coma, and it's hard to imagine Cano staying this dormant much longer. On the other side, Detroit has added Prince Fielder to create as strong a one-two punch as any team can offer, and Verlander is now lined up to face CC if it goes to 7.

Let the games continue.
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