The BASEBALL Rap....

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About Baseball & More......

by Tom Cole
© 2005

October 18, 2005

Playoff Notes -

St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols (5) belts a three-run home run off Houston Astros closer Brad Lidge in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series in Houston. The Cardinals rallied for the 5-4 win. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)

White Wash in LA

So much for MY thoughts that the Angels would win: they disappeared after game 1, but one must give the Sox credit where it is due. In NO playoff series have I seen that I can recall a bull pen that pitched only 2/3 of an inning! No where, at NO time has that ever happened, four straight complete games in one series as we just saw the starting pitchers for the Sox perform. The all around team effort, one that diminishes the importance of a single super star, luckily for the White Sox. Their only superstar is Frank Thomas who played only 34 games this past season, plagued by injuries.

The Angels fans will vilify their team, the hitters, and probably Mike Scioscia, but the credit must given to the Chicago players on the field, as well as management that re-tooled the team prior to the regular season, trading Carlos Lee (regularly hitting 30 hr and 100 rbi) for the light hitting speedster, Scott Podsednik and the acquisitions of ex Yankees Jose Contreras and Orlando (“El Duque”) Hernandez in addition to the emergence of closer Bobby Jenks from Double A. Little attention has been paid to the acquisition of Jermaine Dye as a free agent, but he started the

season batting seventh in the lineup only to be slowly elevated as the season wore on, and when the Sox were in danger of slipping off into oblivion, Dye was batting 3rd, a spot traditionally reserved for the best hitter on the team. At $5 million per year, he may be one of the best free agent signings from last winter's hot stove league season.

Changing the face of the team has proved to be fundamental to their success, molding this group into a true team has been the key to this unprecedented run of success and manager Ozzie Guillen, a lifetime Sox player not so long removed from the game itself is responsible. The idea that this is a group of misfits and castoffs is a myth. Rather this is a carefully crafted team of skilled players who play without the egos of superstars who have embraced Guillen's idea of “smart ball”, as opposed to the media created story of “small ball”. After all, the White Sox hit ONE less home run this year than the swinging Sox from Boston.

Roger Clemens working the top of the 18th inning last Sunday in Houston against the Atlanta Braves. Clemens' post season record has been spectacularly underwhelming to date, but this gritty performance on two days rest dispells whatever doubts anyone ever harbored about the "Rocket" and his ability to deliver in the big game.

Astros Flying High - Then A Crash Landing

The euphoria building in Houston was contagious, a malleable thing easily transmitted through the satellite transmitted images dancing across the color monitors flashing throughout America on Sunday afternoon. A week after the 18 inning game that put a revealing exclamation point on the amazing career of Roger Clemens, this Sunday's game seemed to indicate an irreversible tide, an insurmountable wave that would easily carry the Astros to their first World Series appearance in their 44 year history. Bad calls not withstanding, the Cardinals could not hit the formidable Astros staff, with a bevy of relievers invariable hurling dancing, darting, sinking strikes past the flailing Cardinal bats. The era of the Houston relievers who faced the Cards that day tells the entire story - Gallo (0.00), Quails (0,00), and Wheeler (0.00) followed by Brad Lidge's less than clean 2.25. While Lidge is deemed to have the nastiest “stuff” of any reliever in baseball, he has been a bit less than untouchable with a regular season era of 2.29. But anyone who has struck out 103 batters in 70 innings is obviously making major league hitters look bad, with the dominating numbers that one sees in carefully crafted Little League and high school stat books. Lidge started out well Monday night, striking out the first two hitters with ease, as well as a 92mph slider, the likes of which has not been seen since Rob Nen and the 2002 regular season.

But the scrappy Eckstein, who is hitting an amazing .340 with two strikes, literally threw a grounder into the six hole between ss and 3b, rounding 1b with the confidence of a winner. Jim Edmonds then worked the count, receiving the walk he should have been granted the previous day in five pitches (on the same high and inside location), doing what he wanted to do, extend the inning for Albert Pujols. Regarded as the best hitter in baseball by the announcers on television and radio (at least this week, given the fact Gary Sheffield is home watching the game and Barry Bonds is rehabbing for run a Aaron next year), Pujols swung at a first pitch slider in the dirt then launched a hanging slider over the stands in deep left field, a shot that would have left the park if not for the glass windows designed to shield the spectators from the inclement and unpredictable weather of Texas in the summer. The air quickly left the gathered crowd, silence descended on the stadium and Astro starter, Andy Pettite, was captured by tv cameras in awe of this monstrous shot, gasping “Oh my god…..” as he watched the ball glance off the glassy barrier behind. A return to St. Louis and at least one more game in the “old” Busch Stadium, at least one more game for the retiring Larry Walker, and one more opportunity to watch two evenly matched teams do it again.

Pujols connecting and both pitcher and hitter watching a monstrous shot
over which there was no doubt at the very instant of contact

Umpires Stinking Up the Joint!!

What are these umpires smoking??? The bad calls that have come in high profile games, by umpires whose names are not even footnotes in baseball history has been extremely embarrassing for Major League Baseball. Embarrassing to the point that the powers that be in baseball will not address the process by which umpires are chosen to call the postseason games. The names Eddings and Cuzzie have hardly evoked images in our minds prior to this October, but their mishaps on the field will rate with another infamous name from the past, Denkinger. The very idea that Pierzynski was able to 'sell' a swinging third strike as a ball in the dirt to an entire umpire crew when the ball was clearly and cleanly caught in the air (albeit a low pitch just above the dirt) is amazing. Especially after Eddings had clearly signaled with his upraised right first, 'OUT', though he never uttered those fateful words. The play was over

the ball rolled back to the mound, players leaving the field with the umpire's fist raised in a gesture of finality, and then….. not. Absolutely ridiculous. And why the Eddings did not gather the crew around him to consult on this fateful play in Game 2 of the ALCS is beyond the understanding of anyone in baseball. If there was even a question as to what the correct call was (and he had already made one, in spite of the savvy Sox bench beseeching their lead footed catcher to sprint to 1b in hopes of pulling a rabbit out of their collective hats), why didn't Doug Eddings consult with his peers on the field, all of whom were peering at what was supposed to be the final pitch of the game. Major League Baseball official refuses to address these questions, with this evasion clearly indicating culpability and error. In a playoff game, no less.

Irate St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa argues with home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi after Cuzzi ejected LaRussa in the seventh inning of Game 4 of the National League Championship Series agianst the Houston Astros. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia, left, confers with home plate umpire Doug Eddings in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the American League Championship Series against the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, Given a second chance when Eddings called strike three - but not the third out - Chicago beat the Angels 2-1 on Joe Crede's two-out double in the ninth to even the best-of-seven AL championship series at a game apiece. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Cuzzie's floating strike zone on Sunday was hardly any better. The ejection of LaRussa was not an issue. He had obviously been riding Cuzzie throughout the game as his pitchers did not receive the same calls as the Houston staff, and neither players or managers are allowed to “argue” strikes and balls. But Edmonds' ejection an inning later was peculiar. He was enraged, he was appalled, he was distraught, but he was in control of himself when he turned to Eddings to question a called strike 2 with a 3-1 count and the potential tying run a 1b. The pitch may have hit him if had not leaned back out of the way. Just as easily, if had stepped into the pitch, feigning an expectation of the delivery on the outside half of the plate, he could have taken one for the team and caught it squarely on his right shoulder. Edmonds apparently did swear but not AT the

umpire, merely showing his disgust, uttering “F-k that!” and ending what he thought would be the discussion to resume the at bat. Cuzzie, a little man who apparently feels bigger with the blue uniform and chest protector, immediately ejected the Cards centerfielder who then became enraged, requiring restraint by coaches and teammates.

The bottom line is this…why do I now know these names Eddings and Cuzzie? I should never be aware of them on the field if they are calling a good game, if they are doing their jobs correctly. And Bud Selig and Major League Baseball should be forthcoming in answering this question among others, how are these umpires selected to work the post season?

Pierzynski swings and misses at strike three, as 3rd string defensive specialist , Josh Paul catches the low split finger pitch delivered by Kelvin Escobar.

Darrin Erstad signals out as Pierzynski pointedly ignores what was obvious to everyone on the field except homeplate umpire Doug Eddings - the obvious being he had struck out to end the inning.