The 2009 Baseball Playoffs

[Mister Tee]

Eric, congrats on Joe Mauer's MVP award -- so well deserved.

The obvious choice, especially after the stretch run.

For a Yankee fan, of course, it's like having to acknowledge a performance more deserving of an Oscar in a year when your sentimental favorite's running right behind. You know it was just, but you wish the timing had been different.

[Damien]

Eric, congrats on Joe Mauer's MVP award -- so well deserved.

[Damien]

While we've got this thread alive again, congtaulations to Damien on Lincecum's second straight Cy Young Award. And, as a post I've seen elsewhere said, he does it all stoned.

Thanks, Tee. It's always nice when one of your players wins a post-season award, especially when your team didn't win the Series, the penant or even the division. I was quite surprised that Lincecum won this year; I had figured he'd come in third after Carpenter and Wainwright. But from the post-award discussions, it does seem that voters are scrutinizing all sorts of stats and not just wins, Ks, and ERA.

It is sweet, as Tim's one of the very coolest guys in the game (a free-spirited throwback to the liies of the Sox's Bill Lee) and I remember how frustrating it was in the 60s when one of the greatest pitchers ever, Juan Marichal, never won a Cy Young because it was also the era of Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson.

By the way, an inside the park homer is probably the single most exciting play in baseball, other than perhaps a triple play (as long as it's your team fielsing and not hitting into it).



Edited By Damien on 1258962965

[Okri]

Thanks guys. You're correct, Mister Tee, in assuming I thought they were mythical (I had them on par with pitching a perfect game). Blame Mr. Greenburg for that. I assumed that it'd be easier to ask here than just google the answer. Oh well. Still cool.

[Mister Tee]

Has there ever been an inside the park homer? (Reading Take Me Out inspired this question).

I'm guessing you're fairly unfamiliar with the game, so maybe you'd like a description of how it would come about?

Generally, a batter hits a ball to the outfield, and it gets past the outfielder, and either rolls to a deeper part of the ballpark, or takes an odd bounce and gets out of the reach of back-up outfielders, allowing the batter, who might otherwise have had a triple, to make it all the way home. Most frequently, a speedy base-runner is involved, but there are exceptions. I once saw Bucky Dent, the lumbering Yankee shortstop of the late 70s/early 80s, hit one. As dws says, they're rare by comparison to other home runs, but not mythical, as your original question seemed to wonder.

While we've got this thread alive again, congtaulations to Damien on Lincecum's second straight Cy Young Award. And, as a post I've seen elsewhere said, he does it all stoned.

[Damien]

This past season Chase Utley of the Phillies and Scott Podsednik of the White Sox had inside the park home runs. Emilio Bonifacio of the Marlins hit one on Opening Day.

[dws1982]

There have been, but they've become more and more rare in recent years with power hitting and such. Less than 1% of all MLB home runs are inside the park.

[Okri]

Has there ever been an inside the park homer? (Reading Take Me Out inspired this question).

[Sonic Youth]

I understand Rudy's favorite football team is the New York Giants... which is also your favorite team. Right, Damien?

In fact, I'd bet that every name on that list of Yankee fans you posted last month are also bigtime New York Giants fans. And which team were you enthusiastically rooting for during Super Bowl a few years ago?

Sure I root for the football Giants, but I have only have a passing interest in football. It's baseball that I feel passionate about.

Apples and oranges. So long as you root for the NY Giants, Giulianni/Trump, etc. are your bedfellows. Denial is useless. :p

[Greg]

I can imagine Rudy, upon seeing in the parade a cheerleader wearing a tight uniform, being perplexed as to whether to charge her with indecency or ask to try it on.

[Damien]

I understand Rudy's favorite football team is the New York Giants... which is also your favorite team. Right, Damien?

In fact, I'd bet that every name on that list of Yankee fans you posted last month are also bigtime New York Giants fans. And which team were you enthusiastically rooting for during Super Bowl a few years ago?

Sure I root for the football Giants, but I have only have a passing interest in football. It's baseball that I feel passionate about. (I also don't think the evil ex-mayor is as obsessed with the Giants as he is with the Yankees -- it's part of his official biography that he was tough enough as a kid to root for the Yankees while living in Brooklyn.)

San Francisco Giants in 2010!!!!!!

[Sonic Youth]

I understand Rudy's favorite football team is the New York Giants... which is also your favorite team. Right, Damien?

In fact, I'd bet that every name on that list of Yankee fans you posted last month are also bigtime New York Giants fans. And which team were you enthusiastically rooting for during Super Bowl a few years ago?



Edited By Sonic Youth on 1257904008

[Damien]

Letter in today's New York Daily News:

Rudy rankled

Bronx: It was disheartening to see Rudy Giuliani having a special part in the Yankee parade. This parade and celebration were supposed to be about the World Series champions - the New York Yankees, not the racist, fascist tyrant Giuliani.

Michael S. Wilbekin
====================
Hmmmm,Tee, somehow you neglected to mention this thing's participation in your parade.

Once again, the Yankees showing their true colors.

[Mister Tee]

The Yankees are always thought to be good for ratings, and this was the highest rated Series since '04. (Going six games undoubtedly helped, as well) And they seem to have been good for this thread. Some years the baseball playoff coverage thread has been lucky to get much into double digits. This has got to be the longest in some time.

By the way, we had a parade in NY today. It was cheesy in the extreme, and way over the top with young manly drinking. (As a friend of mine said, think St. Patrick's Day, just substitute white NY's on blue for the standard green) And I reveled in every moment.

[Mister Tee]

It was great to see Matsui have such a night. I remember thinking, after three games of the '03 Series, with the Yankees ahead and Hideki ripping the ball, how great it would be for Japan if he were to become the MVP. A long wait, but he got there...maybe in his last game as a NYer. ESPN said in Japan, where the 5th inning started around lunchtime, people blew off their work afternoons to stay and watch, almost like it was their home team.

I don't know why you would want people from that country rooting for your team after what they did to our boys at Pearl Harbor.

Highlight of the thread.