I used to think all those 5 hour Yankees - Red Sox marathons were the result of intense rivalry and the superhuman competitiveness of Jeter, Man Ram, Papi, etc. Now I know that's B.S.
MLB baseball games are excruciating long because of one thing: over managing. Not hitters adjusting their nuts, spitting, retightening their gloves or, in Papi's case, just taking a break to get a little fatter. Nope, the only culprit is mangers and Joe Torre is their Duce.
Game 1 of the NLCS just ended with the Phillies winning 8-6 over the Dodgers. They managed to squeeze this one in in just over four hours, a brisk pace considering that Torre and his despot protege Charlie Manuel used no less than 6,325 pitchers. I myself got the call to warm up in the sixth but I was already icing down my shoulder in anticipation of getting the call somewhere around hour six of tomorrows ALCS opener.
Tonight's disgusting display was all the more sickening in that it was the National League. Quadruple A, the Junior College of baseball. This is supposed to be the pure league, pitchers hit, second basemen suck and Bob Costas can wax on and on about the beautiful game until the end of time. That kind of boring crap is fine if you can wrap it up in two hours but once you get past that it just becomes the Carnival of the Damned.
How exactly are these control freak managers over managing games? Let's see. The Dodgers and Phillies used a combined 13 pitchers to get 54 outs. 30 of those were gotten by the two starters so the other 24 outs were claimed by eleven different pitchers. They didn't even average a full inning! For the Phillies, Chan Ho Park and J.A. Happ, both starters moved to the bullpen, threw a combined 26 pitches to get 4 outs. Durbin and Bastardo both threw four pitches to get an out apiece. For the Dodgers, Belisario and Troncoso managed to throw just 11 pitches to get four outs.
In an odd occurrence, the two relievers who actually put in some work were the ones that sucked the most. Ryan Madson (former starter) managed to last for 31 whole pitches, allowing four hits and two runs while George Sherrill managed to firebomb the Dodgers chances by allowing 3 runs in just 21 pitches. Impressive efficiency.
And this idiotic phenomenon applies to the American League as well. Year long starter Joba Chamberlain of the Yankees managed to enter a game against the Twins long enough to walk one batter, then make way for Joe Girardi's next overly aggressive move.
The only plausible excuse for this ridiculous coddling of major league pitchers is if you're trotting out a Jesse Orosco type who literally can only throw 5 pitches a day. Outside of that, let the players play! They're big boys, they can take the work. Goose Gossage threw more innings in one year than Phil Coke will throw in his entire career. Compounding this problem is the idiocy of the four out save. Everybody knows that when you bring in a Rivera, Lidge, Paplebon, Nathan, etc. in the eighth to get out of a jam and then expect to throw him in the ninth, bad things happen. Yet all these psycho managers do it constantly, results be damned. Why don't you guys use one of those other multi-millionaire pitchers to get one more out and push it to the ninth before you bring in the Hammer of God?
Sadly, this is all a result of manager cowardice. They are scared to death of the heavy criticism of leaving a guy in too long so they go nuts the other way, generating pitch limits, Joba rules, one hitter specialists and all the other crap that makes baseball god awful to watch. Today's kids have all the attention span of squirrel on meth and you expect them to develop any love for the game when it takes four hours plus? Jon Gruden doesn't even sleep for the average length of a baseball game!
Last thing I'm gonna say; you remember hockey, right MLB? Do you remember when their game got so long and boring because of the neutral zone trap that casual fans started watching lacrosse? It was a lost decade for the NHL in terms of fan growth. Learn the lesson. That's all I'm asking.
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Hey , hey , take it easy there guy . First of all re-adjustings ones batting gloves after taking a ball 3 feet off the black is every bit as important as ignoring the evidance plainly shown in the instant replay that is not allowed in baseball . O.K. somewhat alowed . Furthermore what do you think the expanded playoff roster is for if not to use a pitcher to pinch run for one of all time home run leaders ? Even though he was on first with the bases loaded in a one run game ? I mean come on ! What if R.Furcal had flashed back to 2002 and hit a triple ? You don't know !
ReplyDeleteIn addition if J.Torre wants to steal all the rally momentum from his own team by sending his ace scrambling to find his cleats in a bases loaded situation , who the hell are you to argue ? The fact that YOU had to warm up three times without being called in is irrelevant sir .
When Big Joe calls us into the Ravine we all have to be ready , even you .
Spoken like a guy who's only on year two the Torre plan. You do know that Kershaw only lasted 4.2 because Torre had him throw 900 warmups in the bully pregame right? I've never seen a manager simultaneously destroy arms (Proctor, Scott) and coddle pitchers. That's why he's the Duce.
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