World Series Thoughts: Games 3 and 4

Game 3:

- Nolan Ryan is a HOF pitcher and he just skipped in the First Pitch. As my brother astutely pointed out, go figure they bring in Pudge to catch the throw and he scoops it out of the dirt. Brilliant irony.




- Freddy Sanchez is a damn good ballplayer. This is a guy that won the NL batting title with the Pittsburgh Pirates. And the Red Sox had him. Not to say you shouldn't be happy with Pedroia at second, but I forgot how good of a hitter this guy is because you never get to watch him.

- Pablo Sandoval may not play in the major leagues next season. He's that bad. Watched him ground into a double play in the top of the 2nd. You want to kill a rally? Send him to the plate. Done. Boom.

Hard to believe this is a guy that was all the rage last season. Talk about a one season wonder. I know people that KEPT him in Fantasy Keeper leagues. Woops.

- Coming back from commercial in the bottom of the 2nd, FOX had an aerial few of a small field adjacent to the stadium where kids can go and take some swings. They showed some guy throwing to a left handed hitting youngster. While on TV, the kid hit a dribbler back to the pitcher, fouled one off and swung and missed. Time to quit, son. That guy wasn't throwing 40mph. You have no future and you just choked on national TV.

- Interesting point just came up in the bottom of the 2nd. Cruz had just doubled and Kinsler hit a grounder to short. It looked like Renteria considered throwing to 3rd, and some kid in the room questioned why he didn't try and cut down Cruz. I made the point that Cruz was already past the fielder, and he Renteria wasn't being pulled in that direction. The play was too risky, and instead of 1 out and a runner on 3rd, you could've been looking at 0 outs and 1st and 3rd. Which came up big three batters later after Molina walked and Moreland homered to right. Although it was a 3-run shot, it could easily have been a grand slam.

- Josh Hamilton is Roy Hobbes. No doubt about it. That ball he just hit was a bomb. Prodigious.



I would give up my first born child to watch Hamilton hit. Even when he strikes out, or rolls one over to second, it's a beautiful thing to watch. Imagine him on the Tampa Bay Rays like he was supposed to be? With Upton and Crawford? Crawford-Hamilton-Longoria-Pena. Wow.

- 10-game hitting streak for Cody Ross. Hit safely in 12 of 13 games, 5th homer of the post-season. This guy is in line for a nice, lucrative contract after the season is over.

- Buster Posey has an absolute rocket for an arm. When he throws to second, the throw doesn't get higher than a foot off the ground, and it goes about 95mph. And it's on the mark. This guy might be the most complete catcher in the game right now. And he's a rookie. It's scary.

- As Feliz was overpowering the Giants in the top of the 9th, my buddy Kevin texted me and said, "I would go 0 for 30 with 30 K's against Feliz." I replied with, "0 for 25 with 25 K's and 5 BB's. He tends to lose it now and then."

Regardless, one thing is certain: neither of us would even touch a pitch. Those walks would be because he threw 4 balls in 6 pitches. I wouldn't even be able to foul one off.

Game 4:

- I missed the first couple innings due to an impromptu trip to Walgreens. We went out for Halloween on Saturday night, and I woke up on Sunday stuffed up and feeling like a cold was coming. Naturally, I panicked, especially since October 31 was my final day of health insurance coverage from my last job. Great timing. So I sat around all day watching football then finally got up and hoofed it to Walgreens for a flu shot.

While I was there, I bought some candy for the trick or treaters, a new can opener, and a blender for the apartment. When I got back, I found the blender did not work, and we only had one trick or treater all night. And I woke up this morning sore as shit and feeling groggy from the flu shot. Talk about an efficient trip.

- I have to admit I was shocked that Bumgarner threw as well as he did. Not that I expected him to go all Derek Holland on us, but the kid is 21 years old. And he made the Rangers look terrible. Not only that, but he had Vlad Guerrero looking like he'd never had a major league at bat prior to tonight. Just terrible at-bats for a guy that's incredibly difficult to strike out or look bad because he specializes in bad ball hitting.

- Why did Tommy Hunter get the plug pulled on him so quickly? He gave up the 2-run shot to Huff in the 3rd, and had been in trouble in each of the first three innings. But he gave up a 2-out single to Renteria in the 4th and was only at 83 pitches when he retired the next batter Schierholtz on a fly out to left. Just seemed like Washington was hitting the panic button a little quickly there. I thought he could have saved his bullpen a bit more and kept going with Hunter. If he gets in trouble again in the 5th, I have no problem pulling the plug then, but let the guy keep working. He's keeping you in this game.

- Tim McCarver talked about Posey's catching ability and his arm. Nice to see them give Posey props for his hose. It really is remarkable. He threw another guy out and it wasn't even close. Then McCarver went and made comparisons to Johnny Bench. Interestingly enough, Posey was the 2008 winner of the Johnny Bench award given to the best collegiate catcher. Check out Posey's Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buster_Posey

The more I read and research this guy, the more I realize he might be the most talented all-around player in the game today. He was the starting shortstop for the Y-D Red Sox in the Cape League in 2006, and the starting catcher for the same team in 2007. Both teams won the Cape League title. He also played every position in one game for Florida State, and was their closer. WTF. I just spent 20 minutes watching videos of him on YouTube. What a treat. I have a crush.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=buster+posey&aq=f

- During the game, Joe Buck and McCarver started discussing the topic of Tommy John. At one point McCarver referred to Tommy John as "TJ". That led me to text my buddy Kevin about how McCarver is just insufferable sometimes. Kevin referred to him as "obnoxious", which I realized is the best way to describe McCarver.

Kevin also made a fair point a few minutes later. As pompous and arrogant as Joe Buck is, you have to acknowledge that there's no one you'd rather have calling a game, whether it be the World Series, Super Bowl, whatever. This also led to Kevin and I agreeing that FOX should bring in Troy Aikman to do color for World Series games. Because let's face it, the same comfort level you get with Buck you get with Aikman during football games. And I'd rather listen to Aikman, a quarterback, talk about baseball than McCarver talk about anything.

- Brian Wilson is a bad ass. You kind of have to believe him when he says he signed up for this job the day he was born.

I'm still sick but I'll be watching Game 5 tonight. I'm predicting Cliff Lee returns to form and this Series returns to San Francisco on Wednesday. In fact I'm predicting a Game 7, as well. Giants will drop the next two and provide the most exciting, all hands on deck Game 7 we've ever seen.

-Bess