Hello there Baseball fans! I haven't forgot about you. Well, just like you, I've been watching the matchup between the Braves and the Giants. The first game was....well, it was "the Freak". What else can you say? I was hopeful in the first inning when Lincecum looked like he was going to be a little higher in the strike zone than normal but boy did he straighten that out. By the eighth inning he had Jason Heyward swinging at pitches that were bouncing in front of the plate! I think everyone knew that this was going to be a pitching dominated series. Heck, Bobby was playing the infield in as early as the fourth inning. The big play of the night though came in the fourth when a throw by Brian McCann on a stealing Buster Posey (SF Catcher) was ruled as Posey being safe when it was clear that Brooks Conrad applied the tag when Posey's foot was probably 6 to 8 inches from the bag. From the position the umpire was in, he couldn't have accurately called that play. He was strictly going off where the tag was placed. It was placed high on Posey so therefore he was called safe. Next batter, single...run in and turned out to be the winning run of the game. Now there are some Braves fans out there today screaming bloody murder that we were robbed. OK folks, there isn't anyone out there thats a bigger Braves fans than I am but if we are going to jump on that play, then let's fast forward to the bottom of the 8th after Aubrey Huff singled and then was caught stealing a few pitches later. If you look at that, it was a terribly sloppy tag by Conrad and Huff was safe. Again, a missed call. Yes, Buster Posey then struck out, but who knows how it would have changed the how the Braves pitched Posey if Huff would have been at 2nd and we all know that Bobby would have pulled the infield in to guard against that run so a smoked ball would've easily got through the infield.
Here's my point, if you are whining about that call at second, you don't watch enough baseball. Get over it! There are so many close calls in every baseball game that if the managers were given the right to challenge plays and send them to a replay, we'd have to have a season full of "businessman's specials" (that's games that start during the day in the middle of the week in case you didn't know) in order to get the dang things done before midnight. There'd be more guys sleeping in the clubhouse than Junior Griffey, I grant you that! Look, that's the wonderful thing about baseball...it is what it is. It is the same game played in a sandlot in Slapout, Alabama as it is at Turner Field in Atlanta. That's what makes it special! The biggest thing that I think we are missing in all this is the reaction of the Braves players and coaches. Go read some of the comments of these guys after the game. Derek Lowe, who was the pitcher at the time of the play in the fourth inning, had a pretty good look at the play and admitted that from what he saw, he was definitely out but what did he do? Did he bag on the umps? Did he fly off the handle on the field? Absolutely not. He said this, "It doesn't matter if a guy is out or safe at second base. It's part of the game. They got a big hit when they needed to. I was trying to throw the 2-0 sinker off the plate, because worst-case scenario, I've got the pitcher coming up. I got too much plate, and we lost. It doesn't matter what goes on behind you. We're a good enough pitching staff to overcome anything that happens behind us. It was a mistake pitch that I wasn't trying to throw for a strike, and he hit it. It cost us the game." Wow! A professional player taking ownership? SWEET! I could also quote Brooks Conrad, the Braves 2nd baseman, but he more or less said the same thing...that he thought they got him but the call went the other way...shut up and play ball. The refreshing thing here is seeing Major League players who actually respect the game and don't whine like a bunch of freaking babies, like, oh...let me see...the Yankees. I'll give the Yanks their props, they are a dang good team and probably the most historic franchise of any sport anywhere in the world but there was an awful lot of whining going on up there in the Bronx this year from the manager down. It's just refreshing to see this type of reaction on a bad call from players and manager alike.
Don't get me wrong folks, arguing calls is sometimes necessary for a manager to do but when a call is made however, it's made...it's history....get over it and PLAY BALL! Oh, and if you think that we need instant replay as part of baseball and you think I'm the only one opposed to it, I'll close it with Bobby Cox's comments on instant replay in baseball after last night's loss..."I'd just leave it as it is," Cox said. "It's fine the way it is. We would be arguing and throwing red flags 10 times a night." Couldn't have said it better myself Bobby. Go Braves!
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