MLB 2024 season

The Phils were steamrolling until the series prior to the All Star break when they slept walked through a series with the lowly Marlins. From that point on they were a .500 club last 80 games of the season. Week before end of season, they lost 2 of 3 at MKE and 3 of 4 at Mets, who used that experience to figure out that their pitchers never needed to throw a strike...the Phils would chase anything. The Eagles are similar to Phils in that they have superior but underperforming talent. Prior to NFL season start, I never saw any odds anywhere that had the Eagles in the top 5 SB favorites...perhaps I'm wrong. Right now, despite being LAST in NFC East, they are 7th favorite in most books. I see a 9 and 8 team.

 

Dave Roberts MIGHT have made a brilliant move...

Basically using eight relief pitchers in a game...

What that did is save the arms of ALL the pitchers for the deciding game Friday.

 

I will confess I have not seen even ONE INNING of baseball all season,
I just listen to what Ben Maller, Dan Patrick, Colin Cowherd and Doug Gottlieb say about it...

But I hope KC can advance, so I have a reason to run down to KC for a couple of nights,
and party in Westport or on the Plaza...

 

I couldn't pick Ohtani out of a Police lineup if I had to...

I guess I just lost interest in the game when 'dominant pitching' disappeared, I mean
the guys that would start and go 7-8 innings, giving up 3-4 hits, win 20 games for
8-10 years in a row... AND not demand a trade or more money.

You also have to remember I photographed the College World Series for over 10 years,
I was in the dugouts, and the photo dugouts, and I've met and talked to many of the greats.

I picked out Roger Clemens to be one of the greatest when everyone else had the hots for
Calvin Schiraldi. Our Photo Chief told us to shoot Schiraldi, but *I* concentrated on Clemens.
Barry Bonds, Gregg Swindell, Barry Larkin, Will Clark, Robin Ventura, Rafael Palmeiro, Bobby Thigpen,
Pete Incaviglia, Chris Sabo, and those are just the main ones that went to MLB.

I've talked to them all, photographed them all, went to most of the
BP's, shot most of the games, 'selfies' did not exist back then, but I was never into them
anyway.

 

You’ve got a treasure trove of photos there. Do you own them?

 

The Game 4 reliever victory was easily Roberts’ best managerial work, and game 5 probably saved his job. Strange how one game can change the arc of things. I really enjoyed that the team highlighted their attitude with the "F… them all” meme Kiki Hernandez started. That’s the edge that has been mssing for them over the past few years, and could be what gets them to the World Series. Their pitching is still ragtag, but the Hernandez brothers (in spirit, at least) and the lights out bullpen might get them there, even with the fleet of starters who are injured.

 

Strangely, I think all of this adversity has made them stronger, and they’re starting to remind me of the 1988 Dodgers. History rhymes…the 88 Dodgers beat the Mets in the NLCS; the Mets had been heavily favored to win. In the World series, they faced the A’s, also heavily favored, with the best relief pitcher in the game. Watching Game 4, and then again last night, it’s almost a contact high with the 1988 Game One of the Series.

I was watching the game on TV. Canseco hit a grand slam in the second inning (their only runs of the game), and I started to get that feeling - the Dogers were going to get boat raced in the Series. In the ninth, A’s up 4-3, Dennis Eckersley came in to save the game. I’d watched Eckersley throughout the year, he was almost unhittable, a real gamer. He pretty quickly got two outs, then walked Mike Davis. Lasorda had rope-a-doped the A’s by hiding an injured Kirk Gibson in the clubhouse instead of having him out in the on deck circle. When Gibson appeared, the place exploded. Gibson, though, hobbled to the plate and fouled off the first two pitches. He then worked the count to 2-2 before the final pitch of the game. Gibson literally golfed the pitch over the right field wall, almost entirely with his upper body. I was sitting with my Dad, and fell back over the back of the couch laughing. It was Gibson’s only at bat in the Series, but the team played out of body baseball. Game two was 6-0 Dodgers, the last time a Dodger pitcher (Hershiser) has shut out an opponent over the first five innings (like last night), the Series was over in five.

The call by Vin Scully made Gibson’s home run even better. MLB plays Jack Buck’s call, which I think does a disservice. Buck was also astounded and amazed, but didn;t shut up. I will always remember Scully’s call “High fly ball into right field, she is…GONE!” Scully then remained silent for more than a minute, letting viewers just wath Gibson run the bases while the crowd went crazy. Best call in the universe of announcing. I got to meety Scully years later, and told him how much his call on Gibson’s home run meant. He said that was probably the first thing anyone meeting him would say.

Last stupid thought was the movie "The Natural". When it came out in 1984, the biggest critique was that something like that would never happen in real life. If you reel up Redford’s last at bat with Gibson, it’s almost like they wrote the script. Randy Newman wrote the score for the movie, which was great. He also penned “I Love LA” the theme song for the City, played in the stadium after every victory, Imagine if the Dodgers and Yankees play this year, Newman versus Frank Sinatra (hopefully Newman four times lol)...

 

Sorry, no.

There is no comparison between this Dodgers team to the 88 WS team with Gibson.

This Dodger team had the best record in baseball this year, spent nearly 1B on its payroll in the offseason, and was favored to win it all going into the season back in April.

If anything this Dodgers team was the Oakland A's of the 1988 season.

 

Who would have guessed the Padres would go 24 scoreless innings, just wow.

 

Nope.
I was stupid.
I was shooting for AP, they took all my negatives.
Idiot me didn't 'save' any of them.

But I guess to be honest they supplied the film, they paid for everything, so they owned it,
but stupid me never even thought about using a 4th or 5th camera and shoot my own stuff
on the side back then.

My stuff was used mainly in USA Today, the Dallas newspapers, the OCR, the LA Times,
all over, too bad the byline was 'Associated Press'
The 'biggest' one was when Miami won it 1985, when Rick Raether got the final out
to win the CWS he jumped about 3 feet into the air off the pitchers mound, and I got it.
In the mid-2000's I went into a restaurant and they had my pic of that as used in the
Miami Herald framed hanging on the wall....

 

So now the question is what will SD do next?
Who will they add, cut, trade in the off-season?
I think they are kinda screwed on $$$ contracts?

Yeah, I could have done without that guy actually saying 'The fact that we don't give a ****' on live TV after the game.
He even asked 'is this live?' before he said it.
To ME it was childish and moronic - knowing there were a lot of KIDS watching the game, he just didn't need to SAY it.

 

I don’t think the Mets stand much of a chance against LA. But, if they somehow pull it off, I have a strange feeling they have a real solid chance at winning the WS. I’m never optimistic on the Mets, but I’m comfortable on this particular limb.

Sadly, though, my hunch almost certainly won’t be tested.

 

YMMV of course, and in sports, any comparisons are flawed at best. Looking at injuries, though, the Dodgers had more players injured for the most days lost of any playoff team, including at least half of their pitching roster, and several starters for lengthy periods of time. For the Dodgers, 26 players formally missed time on an injury list with 2158 days lost. To compare, the Padres had 14 injured with 851 days missed, and the Mets had 17 for 1405 days. The Yankees and Cleveland were lower, NYY 22 for 1574, and CLE 15 for 1132.

Injuries are always part of the game, and Roberts didn't do a bullpen game ‘cause he though it would be fun. With their lineup and additions, I told friends that if he didn’t win a World Series, they should fire him and get someone who can finish things off. With all their injuries, I was giving him a pass if they lost this year. Next year, with Ohtani pitching and a roster that can stay reasonable healthy, they damn well better win it…hahahahaha.

 

But I think a lot of 'winning' is not all talent and coaching,
to ME it's absence of bad luck, lack of injuries, and CONFIDENCE in yourself.
If you have ANY doubts in your own abilities, you've already lost.

I've played in sports where I KNOW my opponent is 'better' than me
skill-wise, but he's not better than me in the psychology or experience game,
and if I am going to win, that's how I will do it.

We've seen pitchers we've never heard of mow down a hot-hitting team, you
just get into a groove and can be unhittable, and on the flip-side you can be a
reigning Cy Young winner and can't get out of the first inning, why is that?
You can be a batting champion and go 0-fer, how?

Never forget the '69 Mets, or the '68 Jets...

 

Oh, believe me, I will never forget. I was 7 years old at the time.

Best factoid from that series…Don Buford hit Tom Seaver’s second pitch of the first game for a HR. As he was rounding 2B, he supposedly cracked to Mets shortstop Bud Harrelson: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

To say the Orioles were abundantly confident going into that series would be a profound understatement. But so were the Mets...

 

Take a look at all the stats from the 1960 WS and tell me who won

 

I looked it up, and immediately noticed one stat that stood out - one team had 4 wins, the other team had 3 wins.
No other stats matter.

 

I'd rather see NY vs NY!

 

I was sure happy to see them Get to Knack in the second inning.