Brian
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Post by Brian on Feb 23, 2020 0:37:45 GMT -8
I've been following the scandal since it broke in November. We will still be talking about it next November. This is different than individual players using performance enhancing drugs, which were legal in baseball until this century. The electronic system that the Astros devised in 2017 to steal catchers' signs to opposing pitchers was a team effort involving Astros players, stadium staff and coaches with the acquiescence of the manager and ownership. They cheated during the pivotal home games in their World Series victory over my Dodgers.
I think that the Astros should get to keep the championship in the record book -- where the Reds still prevail over the Black Sox in 1919 -- and which has never had any asterisks. But the team should return the trophy, and the players should return their championship rings and bonuses.
Meanwhile, we await the baseball commissioner's long delayed report about the Red Sox stealing signs illegally in 2018. The Red Sox defeated the Dodgers in that season's World Series. Former Dodger second baseman Alex Cora, one of my all time favorite players at that position, was implicated in the 2017 commissioner's report as an Astros coach. Alex went on to manage the Red Sox in 2018.
In the 1980's, author Bill James reinvented statistics in his Baseball Abstracts while Oakland A's manager Tony La Russa was introducing the laptop computer to a dugout. Now players are ruled by data. Small wonder that they turned the instruments of technology that enslaved them -- the computers and the cameras -- into weapons against their opponents on the field to gain an unfair advantage.
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Post by Sharon W on Feb 23, 2020 11:10:53 GMT -8
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Mar 26, 2020 23:00:25 GMT -8
As Vin Scully said, "Bedlam at Dodger Stadium!" I was there on that hot Sunday, September 11, 1983 and I have the scorecard to prove it. So I hadn't heard Vin's play by play on Channel 11 until I ran across that You Tube clip of the bottom of the ninth inning that some guy videotaped for posterity. It was a pivotal game, as I recall. The Dodgers were trailing the Braves in the National League West. If the Dodgers won, they would only be one game behind, but if the Braves had held any part of their 6 to 3 lead they would have been three games over the Dodgers -- who went on to win the division. R.J. Reynolds' squeeze bunt is one of the most exciting game endings in baseball history. Thursday was supposed to be opening day, the Dodgers versus the Giants in Chavez Ravine. No one can guess when the season will start. Baseball agent Scott Boras has a lot of time on his hands, like so many of us these days, so he concocted a 162 game schedule that starts on June 1 and ends with Game 7 of the World Series the day after Christmas. If the season starts on July 1, play 144 games. Then conduct the post season in neutral parks with good December weather like Dodger Stadium and in domed stadia in places like Seattle and Milwaukee. Needless to say, I fully endorse this plan. I started following Brett de Geus when Sharon posted. He was invited to the Dodgers camp for spring training and pitched a scoreless inning in a major league exhibition game before he was moved to the minor league roster along with other A league players. Spring training ended for everybody a few days later.
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Post by Sharon W on Mar 27, 2020 10:20:50 GMT -8
I thought about Brett too when the season got postponed. I'm reminded of the Moscow Olympics when a friend of ours was on the US swimming team but due to the boycott never got the chance to compete. Swimmers peak early and that turned out to be his only chance.
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Post by Sharon W on Apr 28, 2020 9:36:21 GMT -8
Not baseball but close, my grand niece coaches softball in Texas,
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Jun 24, 2020 23:17:38 GMT -8
The Washington Nationals celebrate their World Series victory last October.
After two months of negotiations, owners and players have agreed to stage what amounts to a 60 game exhibition season starting July 23 or 24, after teams report to their home ballparks for another spring training on July 1. For the first time in Chavez Ravine, the Dodgers will have a designated hitter in every line up. They'll play as many interleague games as they would in a 162 game season because the National League and the American League have combined their six divisions into three geographic divisions to limit travel. If a game goes into extra innings, each team will begin its half inning in the 10th with a runner on second base. Virtually every aspect of each player's behavior on the field will be changed and regulated -- but there are no restrictions when they leave the ballpark.
If the Dodgers finally win the World Series in 2020 under those conditions, it won't mean a thing. The Nationals became World Champions last year after losing 31 of their first 50 games -- they really earned their title.
My loathing for this so called season is only exceeded by my fear of the virus. I see nothing but dread ahead. Not just the inevitable toll on team rosters as players test positive and go into quarantine. I worry about the large number of coaches and managers in their 60's and 70's.
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Roberta
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Post by Roberta on Jul 15, 2020 18:55:30 GMT -8
John just texted me a photo of our TV screen, Dodgers vs. Dodgers on SNLA whatever that is. At least it is baseball.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Jul 29, 2020 23:21:20 GMT -8
How fitting that Dr. Fauci threw the ceremonial first pitch in the first game of the 2020 so-called season. That was last Thursday. The next day, the first Miami Marlins player tested positive, reportedly because two players hit the town after an exhibition game in Atlanta on June 22. By Wednesday, 18 Marlins personnel tested positive. All of their games have been postponed through Sunday, which has affected the schedules of three other teams.
Needless to say, I'm watching more baseball on TV than ever because I'm staying home during the pandemic, feeling dread along with some shame, like I'm watching a car race expecting a crash.
Still, for a few minutes at a time, I feel like I'm watching a real baseball game, despite the piped in crowd noises.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Aug 17, 2020 23:00:30 GMT -8
So far, four weeks into this much abbreviated season, things haven't gone as badly as I feared. No Dodgers have tested positive. However, three National League teams have had games suspended after positive results, subjecting their entire rosters to quarantine while idling several other teams they were scheduled to play. Those games will be made up in doubleheaders -- each game seven innings, yet another profoundly perverse rule change. The Dodgers have played 24 games, but the St. Louis Cardinals just 10 games.
The Dodgers have the best record in the National League, which should excite me, but in my brain it's still April. In this new reality, they've played two-fifths of their season and they only have 36 games left. I haven't spent any time speculating how these Dodgers would fare over 162 games that included the NL Central and NL East teams with fewer interleague games overall. (Ten percent of this season are games against the Angels!) Instead, I'm marveling over Mookie Betts, who may become the greatest Dodger player ever. This is his first year in Los Angeles and he recently signed a 12 year contract. That means I may get to see him play under the traditional rules of baseball in Chavez Ravine, some day.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Sept 17, 2020 23:00:17 GMT -8
Only nine games remain in this 60-game "season." The Dodgers clinched a playoff berth when they defeated the Padres in San Diego on Wednesday, and none of them noticed until it was pointed out on the postgame show. They've held the best record in the major leagues for weeks. As I wrote back in June, if the Dodgers win the World Series, it will be meaningless. Thus I find myself rooting for the Padres -- unless they're playing the Dodgers, of course. It would be the first World Championship for San Diego, but the Padres would have to celebrate on the field in Arlington, Texas.
I'll save most of my rants about the pandemic postseason for the next page of this thread. Let's just look at the brand new Wild Card Series that begins September 30. Previously, the two teams with the next best records met in a one game playoff to decide who joins the three National League division leaders in the NL Division Series. Now, more than half of the teams in the league will be seeded, like the hockey and basketball playoffs. That means that a team with a .500 record like the Giants could face the Dodgers in a three game series in Chavez Ravine. It's possible that none of the division leaders will play in the Division Series -- how weird is that? But it mitigates some of the unjustness of a very short season.
Despite their glorious record after two months, the Dodgers have problems that will only get worse with the postseason schedule, including three left handed batters who aren't hitting after 51 games and a suddenly depleted pitching staff. As things stand this morning, if they win two Wild Card games at Dodger Stadium, they will move to Arlington to enter the bubble, where there will be no days off in the Division Series or the Championship Series.
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