Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Sunday, October 09, 2011
Harvey Kuenn’s ‘82 club won by bashing the baseball, which is precisely what the Brewers did in a 9-6 win over the Cardinals in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series on Sunday, an opener owned by the offenses. If these NL Central rivals trudged any of their regular-season tension into October, they released it by swinging the bats.
...
Ryan Braun led the way with four RBIs and hit one of the Brewers’ trio of two-run home runs in the opener of an all-NL rematch of ‘82 World Series entrants.
|
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. Esoteric Posted: October 09, 2011 at 11:59 PM (#3958054)Great game all around. Braun and Fielder look indomitable.
The bottom of the first kind of put a damper on any pitchers throwing on the inner part of the plate.
It's one of the weird things about La Russa, that in spite of his reputation for the parades of zillions relievers, he does not like to take out his starting pitchers. That's especially true when they're in line for the W (before the end of the fifth) and when they're due to bat in the next half inning.
RR won't admit it but he took the same approach with Marcum in Game 3
Tried to nurse him through and kablooey
I don't want that to sound like Yuni is clutch. I believe that he spends large stretches of games, even weeks, where he isn't trying as hard as he has over the last couple of months.
That being said, I don't have any interest in picking up his option for next season.
The native Cuban typically doesn't speak with the media, but when he does, he needs a translator.
He had one up on the stage in the Brewers' media auditorium, and provided the laugh of the night when the final question posed to him had to do with how he deals with all the criticism he's had lobbed his way over the years.
"I don't really understand English very well," Betancourt said through the translator. "So that being said, I don't really pay attention to what the critics say. Since I don't understand, I don't get mad. I just try and do my job."
Yuni appears to have a sense of humor
That's true, if you count both halves of the 1981 split season as two years and both his White Sox and A's stints in 1986 as another two. Oh, and his failure to emerge from the 14-game hole that Don Kessinger put the club in when he took over for the final 54 games in 1979, gotta add that as another year to his list of failures as well. That's kinda like 12.
Ha!
Actually, in the other LaRussa related thread we're having an interesting conversation on Tony's career. It's worth mulling over how important the last third of his career has been in making his HOF case, during which time the Cards were almost always 1st or 2nd in the division in payroll while also paying Pujols pocket change. Feel free to join.
What's interesting too is that without the fluke of his 83 win Cardinals winning the WS, Tony has all of one WS win in 34 "seasons", or however many it is you'd like to count to. It's a big what if, and flukes work the other way, but it's interesting to note
Not so much "asleep" as "passed out drunk" at an intersection, with the car running.
If I'm managing the Cardinals, Fielder hits the deck every time he comes to bat with two out and nobody on for the rest of the series.
After that cloddish first inning HBP, Prince Fielder should be commended for restraining himself from repeating Frank Drebin's umpiring dance moves.
A simple, "Whoops, I screwed that up," would have sufficed.
Thanks for the invite. Yes, the Cardinals portion of his career put TLR firmly in the Hall of Fame, and elevated him from very good to all-time great. I don't know that's much of a mystery. As for the payroll argument, it can be misleading. It doesn't just lead to greater performance, but also follows it. When guys develop into good players under you, you have to pay them.
So, if he didn't win his second world series, he'd only have one.
Then again, if he wins the WS in the years he had the team with the best record in baseball, he's got at least 4. As far as fluky WS results go, he's probably still getting the short end of the stick.
As Chris has noted, what separates TLR from other big league managers, including the other all-time greats, is how long he's been doing it effectively. Most great skippers, your Weavers (one World Series title) or Williams (2 WS titles) types, don't last that long. They're great, but they burn out by the time they reach their 20th season or so. That hasn't happened to TLR. In fact, as you note, he's gotten some of his best results in the latter third of his career.
Just guessing, but if 4 or more rings is necessary to be considered "great", we can only enshrine Yankee skippers.
EDIT: The list of non Yankees who won more than two WS seems to be: Alston (4), Sparky (3) and McGraw (3).
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main