NLCS Thoughts
Bruce Jost
Just a few random thoughts from a random kind of guy.
-- First of all congrats to both the Braves and Pirates on a most
excellent series. It did wonders for my ulcer. Living in Atlanta I
had to root for the Braves, but I figure there are no bad guys since
neither the hated Mets or despised Dodgers were playing.
-- Does Doug Harvey blow or what? Talk about inconsistent balls and
strikes calls. I was amazed at this in both of the games he was behind
the plate. It is accepted that different umps have different strike zones,
but a decent ump will be fairly consistent with that zone. Harvey was
calling strikes on pitches that were balls a couple of pitches ago.
And I'm not talking about the obligatory "strike" on 3-0. I hope he
doesn't work the series. Does anyone Know who the crew will be?
-- On fans and fads:
I think it was a disgrace there were so many empty seats at Three Rivers
last night. Did everyone stay home to watch L.A. Law? For crying out loud,
this was the seventh game of the LCS, something that may not happen in Pitt
for a while according to the opinion of many.
As far as fads go, I do neither the chop or the wave. I restrain from
these not because of moral reasons (although it is something to think
about) or because of the holier-than-rest-of-civilization attitude that
is taken by the rigid self-proclaimed baseball "purists" that are rampant
among r.s.b, but because I choose to express my enthusiasm for the
game in other ways. I do not, however, think the chop or wave
should be banned and i actually enjoy them when done properly (although
i think i'm starting to get saturated with the chop). I realize this is
heresy when considering the general attitude on r.s.b and all I have to say is
Chill out, this is a game. You know, for fun and stuff like that.
My comment about everone's favorite fans, Ted and Jane:
YEEEEECCCCCHHHHH.
-- On the CBS announcers and coverage:
I am not a big fan of CBS after the truly un-American coverage of
baseball this year. Maybe one game on Saturday? Come on. I hope that when
the TV negotiations come up, MLB takes this into consideration and will
have enough integrity to give it to someone who will give baseball the
coverage it deserves and not just the highest bidder. But I doubt it.
I like the video coverage CBS is presenting. I don't think they
missed a play yet and there are numerous angles to view the close plays.
I do not like either Tim McCarver nor Jim Kaat. Kaat is an idiot. At least
McCarver usually knows what he is talking about, but he is obnoxious as hell.
I like Buck and will probably get flamed for it, but I grew up listening to
him in St. Louis and it is my totally biased opinion that he is simply the
best.
Hearing all the Pirate fans whine about the announcers being biased
towards Atlanta cracks me up because there is a mini stink here about
them being biased towards Pittsburgh. The Atlanta Constitution even had
an article about it. I thought that they were a little biased towards Pitt also
until I started reading the postings here. I decided to listen to their
announcing with my attitude being as unbiased as possible (no I did not
keep score of their announcing). I came to the conclusion that they do not
favor one team over the other. I guess next week I'll see postings from
someone at U of Minn saying that CBS loves the Braves, etc..
-- Some replies I've been holding:
Dave Justice missed the bag. Why else would he hesitate after rounding
third as if he was going to go back and touch the bag? Why didn't anyone argue?
It is possible and probable that when the first baseman caught the ball over
the dugout the ball landed in the webbing and then it and the webbing crashed
on the roof of dugout thereby causing the sound you heard.
Someone mentioned they were sick of Gant's hotdogging. Well what do you call
Bonds' method of catching a fly ball (slapping his glove on his thigh and then
sweeping his arm in a semi-circle after catching the ball, geez), proper
fielding technique? I also noticed he wasn't doing that in the second half of
the 7th game.
-- One last thought:
Last night when Bill White was presenting the trophy to the Braves, did
anyone else besides me want Cox to just step up and pop him one up side the head?
Good thing Cox has more class than that, but still ....
Thank you for letting me ramble on. Good luck to both the Twins and Braves
and I hope the series is as exciting as the NLCS. I fear the dome. Even the
Twins players were having trouble judging some of the flys.
\soapbox_mode{off}
IMPEACH BILL WHITE
--
Bruce Jost
Georgia Tech, School of Electrical Engineering, Atlanta, GA 30332
******************* NATIONAL CHAMPS 1990 ***********************
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