Saturday, October 26, 2002

Bullpen Falls Apart, But Dusty Moved Too Quickly Dusty should have left Russ Ortiz in longer. I know. Easy to say in hindsight. But Dusty has always been guilty of leaving pitchers in too long. Tonight he deviated from that usual policy -- which got us to the World Series (among a lot of other things, of course) -- and it backfired. The bullpen stunk tonight. Nen serves up a gofer ball. What's with these guys? If you can't hold a 5-0 lead in the most important game of the season, maybe you don't want it badly enough. Maybe the other guys deserve to win. Disgusting. 10:51:19 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Top of Ninth Now we have to face Troy Percival, who's all but unhittable in situations like this. This one feels so over. Goodwin pinch hitting for Dunston. Strike out. One down. Lofton batting. He's had a decent night. Pops out to third in foul territory. Two out. Aurilia steps in. Season on the line. The second pitch to him was outside by a lot and got called a strike. 2-2 count. One strike away...or one swing away. This is what baseball is about, but it shouldn't have been tonight. Richie strikes out swinging at a pitch way out of the zone. Final: Angels 6, Giants 5 My prediction: Angels win it tomorrow night in a walk. We just blew the season. No excuse for it. 8:50:07 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Bottom of Eighth This is the crucial half-inning for the Giants. We can't let them score a single run. If we hold them here, we can win this sucker. If not, it's a tossup. I'm not sure I'd have left Worrell in. Erstad at the plate. Crap. Smoked that sucker into right for a homer. Giants 5, Angels 4 and now it's anybody's game. There is no excuse for Worrell making a mistake that big in that situation. Just awful. Now Salmon steps in, then Anderson and Glaus. I don't like the way this feels. Salmon singles to put the tying run on with nobody out. Chone Figgins running for Salmon. Nen warming up in the bullpen but if he has to come in for the 8th, he could run out of gas. Anderson flares one into left. These always drop for the Angels. Crap. Runners at 2nd and 4d, still nobody out. This one is slipping away fast. Nen coming in way too early. Even if he holds them here, what will we do for the ninth? Arrgh!!!!!! This was in the damn bag. Glaus up. Can't imagine a worse scenario for us than this. Angels go up 6-5 on a double into left center by Troy Glaus. I don't believe it. How in the hell do you blow a five-run lead in a World Series game? Man, this is disappointing. I am so depressed I don't even want to watch the rest of this one. Fullmer batting. Runner at second, still nobody out. Dusty owns this one. Bad pitching changes. Whew. Loud strike. Thought that would be a double. Nen gets him swinging. About damn time. This has been a freaking disaster. Intentional pass to Spiezio. Good decision. First one of the inning. Jose Molina up. Bunts the runners along. Two out, Kennedy coming to the plate. Kennedy strikes out. Giants 5, Angels 6 8:39:48 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Top of Eighth We need some insurance runs. 5-3 is just too close with these Angels' bats. Brendan Donnelly now on the mound for Anaheim. Santiago at the plate. The commentators are being idiots. They're saying he went around on the 1-1 pitch that damn hear hit him. His body clearly carried him around, his wrists didn't break and, more importantly, he didn't offer at the pitch. These guys are disappointing me tonight. Lead-off walk to Santiago. Very nice for the Giants. Lead-off walks often jump up and bite you. Snow to the plate. Broken bat fly-out. How come they break their bats and the damn ball drops in for a hit but we do that and we're out? That's so annoying. Sanders steps in. Over-anxious swinging at the first pitch. Only one of the pitches he swung at was in the zone and he didn't take a single pitch. Not a good at bat at all. One out, twoon. David Bell hitting. Swings at one out of the zone. What's with these guys? We need some patience here! OK, Bell is showing some savvy. 2-2, Strikes out. This guy Donnelly's not that good. Giants 5, Angels 3 and their big bats due up. 8:16:28 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Bottom of Seventh Nine outs away. They're showing Bonds' first homer and playing "Forever Young" beind it. No kidding. Ortiz still on the mound for San Francisco. What a great job. Anderson up to bat. Hits a 1-0 grounder to Kent, One down. Glaus gets the Angels' first real hit of the night. One on, one out. Fullmer at the plate. (Jake just posted a TVphoto of Kent's RBI single, a great shot, at http://static.userland.com/images/jake/DCP02587.jpg) Base hit to right by Fullmer, two on and one out. Dusty's not taking any chances. In comes F-Rod. Wonderful outing by Russ. Jake's photo of Russ and Dusty: ?http://static.userland.com/images/jake/DCP02588.jpg Spiezio batting against F-Rod. He is really battling here. Tough AB. A K here would be awesome. Oh, shit. Three-run shot. Made a mistake inside. There goes Russ' shutout. Damn. Palmiero pinch-hitting for Molina. Russ is responsible for the two that scored ahead of Spiezio but it's F-Rod's fault for not being able to get him. Man, that hurts. Geez, still only one out. Strikes out Palmeiro. Two down. Whew. Eyre in to pitch as Kennedy steps to the plate for Anaheim. Sphincter-tightening time again. You just knew you weren't going to hold these guys scoreless. That means that this entire post-season there wasn't a single shutout. Unbelievable. Rodriguez' ERA: 27.0 tonight. Damn. Another broken-bat hit by Kennedy. That finishes Eyre, with Tim Worrell coming in to face Eckstein. This is nerve-wracking as hell. Eckstein at the plate. One on, two out. Flies out to right. Long half inning over. Still in the lead. Giants 5, Angels 3 8:02:38 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Top of Seventh Dunston comes in to face K-Rod. Pops it up on the infield. One out. Lofton singles to right. He's got a hot stick. Aurilia at the plate. Lofton steals second on a pitch-out, then goes to third on a bad throw to second and despite being interfered with en route to third. Wow. Runner at 3rd, one out. This man is 37 years old, people! Wow. Aurilia called out on strikes on a pitch that sure looked outside but on replay clipped the outside paint. Kent steps in. Time for another homer? Tough against this guy but not impossible, as Barry just showed. Kent singles over the shortstop and Lofton scores. Giants 5, Angels 0 Bonds steps to the plate. What do you do now, Mr. K-Rod? Pitch to him? Yep. Bonds strikes out ugly. You don't see that often. Giants 5, Angels 0 7:28:58 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Bottom of Sixth Ortiz has a one-hit shutout going. This is better than he's looked all season, I think. It will be interesting to see how long Dusty leaves him in if he keeps going this well. Here's Jake's picture of Bonds' homer Molina flies to right. Kennedy gets a broken-bat single just over Kent's head. Another cheapie. The Angels have done nothing against Ortiz tonight. Double-play time. You start to get the sense this might be the Giants' night...and year. These guys aren't hitting Russ at all. Eckstein is doing a good job of hanging in there with two strikes. He's a really gutty player. He grounds out to Aurilia, Kennedy advancing to second. Erstad stepping in. He's one for his last 12 and that's not good because that may mean he's due. Walked him. Not a bad walk. Salmon steps in. And of course the announcer has to remind us that Salmon got a HR off Russ to knock Ortiz out of his last outing. Russ gets two strikes on him. Wow, Russ got away with one on the fifth pitch, tossing him a low fast ball right in his wheelhouse but getting him to ground it foul. He strikes him out! That was HUGE! Giants 4, Angels 0 7:14:58 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Top of Sixth Tough slider, my butt. Bonds will let you know when it's "tough," Mr. Rodriguez. Jake is now uploading pictures to his Web log: Check it out at: http://jake.editthispage.com/ Giants 4, Angels 0 Santiago goes down Snow singles through the left side of the infield. Sanders up. Ouch, first pitch ugly. Rodriguez looks like he's over-throwing. But he gets Sanders looking. Mean slider. Bell pops out to first. Giants 4, Angels 0 6:58:38 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Bottom of Fifth Glaus leads off. This guy hurts us but with a 3-0 lead, maybe we don't have to worry too much. McClelland behind the plate is not doing a very good job. Not horrible, but not sharp. Glaus fliles out deep to center field. Jake has posted a picture he took off his TV of Kevin Appier after being lifted in the fifth. Fullmer jammed, flies out to right field. Two gone. Spiezio grabs a 3-0 count, then takes two strikes from Ortiz, the second of which was a beauty. Fouls off 2 and then grounds out to Snow. No damage. Giants 3, Angels 0 and the heart of the Giants order coming up! 6:49:08 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Top of Fifth Sanders leading off. Great shutout so far. Really great baseball. Pops out to short for the first out. (Dave Weiner has two of his nieces over and has taken a bit of a break so I'm back to doing play by play.) Bell steps in. Hits a spinning, squirting grounder up the middle and Eckstein can't handle it. Base hit. Bell at first, one out. Dunston, who for some reason is at DH tonight despite his bad performance against Appier in his earlier appearance in this role, is up now. Patience, man. Francisco (aka Franky) Rodriguez (aka K-Rod) warming up in the Angels' pen. I'm less afraid of him than I was earlier. We proved we can hit him. Here's a Fox Virtual Manager question for you: Should baseball limit the number of times a pitcher can throw over to first during any one at-bat? YES! So now we know why Dunston is in at DH. Dusty knows things I don't know! Giants 2, Angels 0 Lofton stepping in. He doubles into the alley in right center. Appier is gone. Wow, another Giants explosion. This is almost enough to make me fall in love with the DH. Almost. Appier's not happy about being pulled. In a regular-season game, my guess is Scioscia leaves him in. But this is for all the marbles. Aurilia at the plate. Lofton steals third base! Now a sac fly can bring in another run. He picked a great pitch on which to steal. That brings the infield in, so a slap single could get through. Crap. Aurilia doesn't handle the bat well there. Kent comes up. Maybe he'll park another one here. Gee, that slider is nasty. But a big leaguer ought to be able to hit it after he's seen it once or twice, don't you think? Wild pitch! Right after McCarver was talking about the slider in the dirt. Giants 3, Angels 0, bases empty. Kent grounds out. Giants 3, Angels 0 6:37:28 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Bottom of Fourth Fast game so far. We're only exactly an hour in and we're more than 1/3 done with the game. I keep reading that the East Coast fan base isn't watching this World Series on TV, which is bothering Fox. I wonder why. This has been a competitive and interesting Series with lots of sub-texts and plot twists. For years, I've wondered if there are actually very many baseball fans or if most fans are really team followers, not real game fans. This lends more credence to my theory. Wow, a great stop by Aurilia. Too bad the throw was so far off but Snow should have handled the throw more cleanly. This is the kind of shit that goes wrong in close games that you have to watch out for. First hit of the game for the Angels and it is a cheapie. What a beautiful 4-6-3 double play by the Giants! That's a tough one to turn. Dodged a bullet. Giants 0, Angels 0 6:14:08 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Top of Fourth OK, they are "pitching" to Bonds, but don't expect anything hittable unless it's a mistake. As expeted, they pitch around him and walk him. Lead-off walks are often damaging. Let's see if we can take advantage of it here. Double play clears the bases. That was ugly. Benito didn't seem to be moving very quickly down the line. So the leadoff walk to Bonds doesn't cost them again. We have to start making them pay for those moves. Another quick inning for Appier. This is now a real pitchers' duel. My kind of game. Giants 0, Angels 0 6:08:18 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Bottom of Third So far, this is the best-pitched game from both sides of the World Series. You keep wondering how long it'll be before one of these teams explodes. There's been so much of that. Great toss by Ortiz on the last pitch to Kennedy. Two gone. Ortiz cruising. Eckstein up. This guy's deceptively dangerous. One-Two-Three inning! Woohoo! Bonds leads off the fourth. Giants 0, Angels 0 5:57:47 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Top of Third Dunston swings at the first pitch. Against Appier, you must have patience. He doesn't keep the ball in the zone. That was a helluva play by Glaus on the bunt by Lofton. That bunt should have worked and would have against almost any other third-baseman. Wow. Two gone already. A completely different game from the last outing of these two hurlers. This could even be a low-scoring game, which I did not anticipate. Richie draws a two-out walk. I remind you again that the Giants have had great success all season and in the post-season with two gone. Giants 0, Angels 0 5:49:38 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Bottom of Second Wow, Anderson gave that ball a ride for the first loud out of the inning. The Angels get their first base-runner on a walk to Glaus. That's OK. He's not the leadoff man and the fact that Glaus has 7 HRs makes that a good walk as far as I'm concerned. Inning over. Giants 0, Angels 0 5:40:18 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Top of Second Enough of the damn talk about Darren Baker already! My God, that wasn't the game highlight. Every newspaper and TV show has used that angle. It's over. Let's talk today's game, Sheesh. Appier looked really good against Sanders. Wicked third strike. McCarver's stumbling around the pitch description. Is it a curve or a slider? There was a reporter or commentator a few years ago who called such pitches "slurves." I like that. So far, I am not impressed with the home plate ump. His zone is too big. Wow. 1-2-3. That's some wicked breaking stuff Appier is throwing tonight. Giants 0, Angels 0 5:27:38 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Bottom of First Ortiz starts out with a first-pitch strike. He needs to do that a lot more than he did last outing and in fact more than he usually does. Gotta be careful how you pitch to Salmon. This guy's been hard on us. Wow, that was a great pitch on 3-1. Fast ball at the belt. Alright, perfect first half inning for Russ. That's better! Giants 0, Angels 0 5:19:27 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Top of First Tim McClelland is the home plate umpire tonight. My impression is that he's good. We'll know soon. First pitch: 5:03, a ball high and away to Lofton. Lofton pops up for one away. I think it would be good if the Giants showed some patience here. But so far, they're not making Appier work very hard. Aurilia flies to shallow center. Two gone. My buddy Jake is going to blog pictures taken from his Tivo during this game. I'll give you URLs as he passes them to me. Kent singles through the box. Dave Winer is in fact blogging the game in his interactive outliner tonight: http://static3.userland.com/mtweblog/archives/000037.html#000037 Bonds draws an intentional walk. This is just insane. Kevin of ESPN before the game pointed out something very important. Walking Bonds early results in bringing up the heart of the order in key situations later in the game becuase it turns the batting order. My wife Carolyn just said that Benito getting out of the way of that inside pitch looked like a ballet dancer. He did, didn't he? Tim McCarver started out the Series saying the slider was the most dangerous pitch in baseball and he hates it and now he's telling us Appier just threw the best one he's thrown in the Series. Yeesh. Dave Winer's blogging the play by play so I'm going to put less emphasis on the action and more on my commentary. Giants 0, Angels coming to bat. 5:11:18 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Pre-Game Thoughts Some miscellaneous ideas that romp through my head waiting for tonight's opening pitch: This is a must win for both teams. If the Giants win, it's over of course. That's my heart's desire. But if the Angels win, it is my guess that they will go on to win Game 7 tomorrow. That makes this a must win for the Giants, too. Wow. It's going to be fun. If the Angels go in tonight thinking they can hit Ortiz like they did in Game 3, they could get over-confident, start over-swinging, and get off their game. If that happens, they won't score many runs. Russ is likely to be much tougher tonight than he was in Game 3. Of course, that wouldn't take much, would it? Why does Fox Sports' lead-in ad feature a combat-clad soldier and a combat jet? I get so tired of the saber-rattling. It's out of place here. Who is SF's hero tonight? That job has been passed around a bit in the playoffs and that's been a good thing. Opening pitch soon. 4:35:08 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Blogging Game 6 Well, I guess I'm officially addicted to this stuff. Despite the fact that my "audience" has stayed away in droves and despite the fact that I probably miss an occasional play because I'm commenting on the last one, I've decided to blog the final game(s) of the 2002 World Series. So tune in. Post comments as we go. Or open a real-time dialog with me at AIM (alkaline420), Yahoo (dshafer) or ICQ (49009976). 4:29:28 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

NY Times Dave Anderson to Selig: Pete Rose Deserves HOF I've made no secret of my support for Pete Rose's return to eligibility for lifetime baseball honors, including election to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Dave Anderson of the New York Times agrees. Dear Bud: It's Time to Forgive Pete Rose. Before Game 4 of the World Series this week, fans told Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig that they have forgiven Pete Rose for his betting behavior. By Dave Anderson. [New York Times: Sports] Anderson's most cogent summary of reasoning: "Steroid-using sluggers tamper with baseball's integrity more than Pete's bets did." Yep. 2:38:21 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Many Weblogs Have Transitioned to Pulpits? Dave Winer, in his History of Weblogs says: Weblogs are often-updated sites that point to articles elsewhere on the web, often with comments, and to on-site articles. A weblog is kind of a continual tour, with a human guide who you get to know. That's certainly how Weblogs started out and got their name (they were logs of Web tours and visits and recommendations). But it's clear that many Weblogs have become something quite different. Mine, e.g., is far more often about my take on a topic or my narration of a sporting event in real time than it is a sort of set of interesting pointers with commentary. As I look around at the Weblogs I follow, I think most of them have evolved from the tour guide model to a more editorial model. (Probably most of them never were tour guides. I see blogs becoming, as I said when I first encountered Radio, more and more like the Web's typewriter. But now it's combined with a directly connected printing press. Woohoo! 11:14:10 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Another Vote for Bonds as the Greatest of All Time Allen Barra of Salon.com adds his voice to the rising tumult. His wondering about whether the fact that Barry's black might have something to do with baseball fans trying to deny him superiority over Babe Ruth was reminiscent of what happened to Muhammad Ali as he was coming up in boxing. Barry and the Babe. Forget the nostalgia freaks droning on and on about the Mythical White Ballplayer era. Barry Bonds is the greatest player in baseball history. [Salon.com] I suppose it goes without saying that I agree with Allen and the millions of other fans who have seen this truth for a couple of years now. 11:05:34 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Ah, Yes. Shades of the Sixties I am encouraged by this new direction of public protest against the warmongering of the Bush Maladministration. Antiwar Groups Massing in Washington. Tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected to converge on Washington to tell the Bush administration that they oppose its strategy for a pre-emptive military strike against Iraq. By Lynette Clemetson. [New York Times: Politics] From the article, a message with which I resonate strongly: "The American people are saying there is another conversation to be had, and I would frame this march as a new beginning," said the Rev. Bob Edgar, the general secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ who served six terms in the House as a Pennsylvania Democrat. Protesting before young men of many nations start dying on a battlefield of greed and oil may be our last, best hope. 10:59:10 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Why So Much Repetitive Stuff in Wired News Feeds? Wired News has some of the stuff I really like to read and often link to and comment on. But I'm about to unsubscribe to their news feed because of repetition. Question: is this kind of repetition something Wired could easily fix or is it sort of inherent in the system? I see other feeds provide repetitive stuff from time to time as well, but overnight, the Wired feeds at 10 p.m., 1, 4, 8, and 10 a.m. were identical in every respect. Interestingly enough, the 9 a.m. feed was not. Is something unexpected or weird going on here or is this expected behavior? 10:54:48 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

History Favors Angels? But There's a Twist Here Dave Winer this morning links to a New York Times piece that outlines why the odds favor the Angels in the last two games of the 2002 World Series. But there's a hidden gem here for Giants fans. In that piece, Murray Chass points out that, " In [the last 20 years], teams have taken a lead of three games to two on the road seven times, and six times returned home without the World Series championship." This, he thinks, mitigates the 2002 edition in the Angels' favor. But later in the piece, he points out that three of those six instances were the only times in history that all of the games were won by the home team. Clearly statistical anomalies. This Series is more like most of them that have been played: teams have won at home and on the road. I'm staying with my original prediction: Giants in six. They win tonight. But an important caveat here: if the Giants manage to lose today, then I think the odds swing strongly to the overcoming, charmed Angels who will then likely win it in seven. (That's not an original idea. As I posted yesterday, Peter Gammons of ESPN makes the same prediction.) 10:30:59 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

over-qualified Yeah, I'm Over-Qualified. Hire Me Anyway! The past year or so, I've spent a lot of time looking for work. The economy being what it is, consulting gigs have been hard to come by and since I chose to move out of Silicon Valley and into technologically rural Monterey, access to immediate interview opportunities for job openings has been limited. I have a lot of friends in my position. Fortunately, I have reached a place where I don't need to obtain a full-time position (though I'd still be interested in finding a great opportunity) because I have been able to locate enough different writing and consulting opportunities to keep body and soul together for the foreseeable future. But in talking with my colleagues, I've noticed something that is really annoying, particularly in this economy. Most of us are quite senior, with lots of experience and good job references and skill sets. Yet all of us have been rejected multiple times for jobs we could obviously do because we were "over-qualified," even when we were perfectly willing to work for salaries below what we would be able to earn in a better economy. Why, I wonder, would a company prefer to hire a junior, less experienced worker for the same amount of money for which they could hire a senior person who could not only do the job but perhaps add other value (like emotional stability, perspective, and inspirational leadership)? I suppose I know one reason: they're concerned that the over-qualified employee will jump ship if a more senior opportunity comes along. Duh! So would any other employee. And in the current job market, what's the near-term likelihood of that? This just seems crazy to me. 9:58:38 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Anti-Spammers Going Way Too Far Anti-Spammers Going Way Too Far This isn't news (the article is dated 9/10/01) but I was reminded this morning of one of the less savory aspects of the Wild Wild Web: anti-spam vigilantism. NetworkWorld Fusion ran this excellent piece on the lengths to which such completely unregulated organizations as the Mail Abuse Protection System (MAPS) and SpamCop will go to battle the ghastly problem of junk email. Like you, I'm tired of dealing with an increasing flood of spam. And like you, I keep looking for new ways and tools to combat it. But these vigilante groups blatantly admit that they consider "guilty until proven innocent" to be the law of the Net when it comes to this stuff, and as a matter of policy they shoot first and ask questions later. I remember about a year ago, a friend of mine sent me an email and said, "You have an open gateway in your mail server. If you don't shut it, someone will report you and you'll end up on the blacklist." I had no clue about the open gateway and my ISP did whatever was necessary to close it, but notice something. If my friend hadn't noticed the problem and warned me, any stranger who detected the problem could notify MAPS and have my business shut down without notice or warning. And fixing the problem could cost me thousands and thousands of dollars. Sort of reminds me of the way our Selected President is running things domestically and internationally. No thought, no consideration, no investigation, no proof: shoot first and ask questions later. Maybe there's someething in the air. 9:46:56 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

© Copyright 2002 Dan Shafer.