Is anyone watching MLB playoffs?

[Sue U]

I have to say the Phils-Mets battle is some really exciting/nail-biting baseball.

(All the buildings in town that have lights have them turned on in red, makes for quite the skyline; one building -- the Cira Center -- is doing giant animations of the Phils' logo on its sides. )

[MajGenl.Meade]

I'll watch the Indians Guardians. Don't give a rat's patoot for any other team.

[Sue U]

I'll watch the Indians Guardians. Don't give a rat's patoot for any other team.

How do you feel about Detroit today?

[MajGenl.Meade]

I'll watch the Indians Guardians. Don't give a rat's patoot for any other team.

How do you feel about Detroit today?

It's Michigan - nothing but hatred

[Sue U]

How do you feel about Detroit today?

It's Michigan - nothing but hatred

The Michigan-Ohio war rages on, then! (I understand the loser gets Toledo.)

[Crackpot]

The losers already got it.

[Bicycle Bill]

I spent last weekend with my fiancée ... who had time to watch baseball?

[MajGenl.Meade]

The Michigan-Ohio war rages on, then! (I understand the loser gets Toledo.)

We live in hope (but that above, right there, that's funny!)

[Long Run]

I have to say the Phils-Mets battle is some really exciting/nail-biting baseball.

Agreed. In game 1, the Phillies manager over-managed his pitchers and lost the game. Wheeler, one of the best pitchers in MLB, had his best stuff and was throwing a playoff classic in a tight 1-0 game through the 7th. Why would a manager replace such an ace pitcher for a mediocre reliever is confounding (the Phillies relievers gave up 6 runs in the 8th and 9th and blew the game). You can understand load management during the regular season, but it has no place in tight playoff games.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Oh dear . . . looks like we'll keep Toledo for another year

[Sue U]

I have to say the Phils-Mets battle is some really exciting/nail-biting baseball.

Agreed. In game 1, the Phillies manager over-managed his pitchers and lost the game. Wheeler, one of the best pitchers in MLB, had his best stuff and was throwing a playoff classic in a tight 1-0 game through the 7th. Why would a manager replace such an ace pitcher for a mediocre reliever is confounding (the Phillies relievers gave up 6 runs in the 8th and 9th and blew the game). You can understand load management during the regular season, but it has no place in tight playoff games.

It was a judgment call, but the wrong one. Last night I left for orchestra rehearsal after the 5th inning, with the Phils again ahead 1-0. After this season, the Phils by all rights should have been the NL champs, but to lose to the friggin' Mets? That's heartbreaking.

[eddieq]

Phils are still my team. Losing like that to the Mets just stinks and stings.

As an umpire, I don't like to call out officials when they make the wrong call. Stuff happens quickly and these guys are all at the highest level of their profession. That said, FTR, Bohm's grounder in the 8th was a fair ball, extra base hit down the right field line (that bounced over first and was called foul). Phillies needed to play better the whole game and this single bad call didn't make the difference, but if that's ruled correctly, they may have gotten at least one in that inning and possibly more. Instead he gounded out later in the at-bat. Shouldawouldacoulda.

We are working on the backward cycle, though.

2022 - Lost WS
2023 - Lost NLCS
2024 - Lost NLDS
2025 - Lose in Wildcard?

Not a trend I want to see continue, of course.

[Sue U]

At least Jon Stewart is happy.

[Sue U]

As a Phillies fan I well know the Mets have absolutely no right to be in the NLCS, but come on, they're embarrassing our whole division!

Also, I'd like to think we lost to a better team than that, but they're not. If the World Series turns out to be Dodgers v. Yankees, I just won't know which team I'd want to see lose more.

[eddieq]

So regarding the WS this year. Yankees vs Dodgers. Since they can't both lose, the only rooting interest I have is a local connection with the Yankees. Pitcher Tim Mayza graduated from the local high school where I live. So while I won't buy any Yankees gear, I will be happy for Tim if he gets a ring.

[MajGenl.Meade]

[Sue U]

Fortunately I will be at orchestra rehearsal tonight (concert on Sunday!) so will be spared hatewatching Game 1. My business partner, a life-long Yankees fan (with season tix), says SRO tickets for Cranky Stadium next week are going for $1400. Actual seats are in the mid-$3000s. Insane.

[ex-khobar Andy]

My understanding of baseball is rather limited. Oh I get the basics: hit the ball and try to get around as many bases as you can but beyond that I'm a little hazy.

The bit I don't get is - in major league ball - the umpires seem to have their own strike zones. I understand of course that for the vast majority of baseball games there will never be automated ball and strike calling - just as how, for the great majority of tennis games, line calling will be done by impartial people and/or the players themselves - but why on earth can it not be automated? The technology is easy enough. When I do watch baseball and they have the electronic window I see some astonishingly poor calls - not just close but six inches or more out. In every game with human refs and umpires there will be errors but it just seems that baseball has more than its fair share. (And I speak as a cricket fan and umpires are notoriously uneven when applying the 'leg before wicket' rule but that's a rant for another day.)

I think - I could be wrong but it doesn't happen often - that baseball fans accept umpire error as just part of the game. Is that true?

[Sue U]

Feature, not bug.

[Bicycle Bill]

The bit I don't get is - in major league ball - the umpires seem to have their own strike zones  (...)  when I do watch baseball and they have the electronic window I see some astonishingly poor calls - not just close but six inches or more out.

First thing to remember is that the strike zone is and always has been three-dimensional...    According to rule 3, section 35, it is not a line or a single point, but a box, if you will, that (since 1996) has been set at seventeen inches (43.18 cm) wide and as tall as the measurement from the batter's kneecaps to the midpoint between a batter's shoulders and the top of the uniform pants —– when the batter is in his stance and prepared to swing at a pitched ball (emphasis mine)—– and extends seventeen inches (43.18 cm) deep from the front of home plate (which is the base of a pentagonal-shaped piece of rubber) to the apex of the pentagon.  So you see that the strike zone can vary from player to player.   In fact, in 1951 Bill Veeck (at that time the manager of the St. Louis Browns) sent Eddie Gaedel, who measured only three feet seven inches (109.2 cm) tall, up to bat with orders to just stand there and let the pitcher walk him, as his strike zone was so minuscule as to be almost non-existent.

The two-dimensional grid you speak of is usually superimposed by the broadcaster and generally shows where the ball was when it was caught by the catcher, who is positioned two to three feet beyond the apex of this pentagon.  And since we know that a thrown ball can curve in flight, where it is eventually caught is not necessarily an accurate reflection of where it was when it passed through this three-dimensional strike zone.   We are dependent on the Mark 1 eyeballs of a (supposedly) neutral, trained observer to make that determination — and to make it in real time.

Now having said that — yes, I agree that there are times when the calls are questionable...   they always have been, and always will be.   Unless you want to festoon the stadia with cameras, sensors, infra-red beams, and other electronic gadgetry with every other call being subject to review, much like it is now in American football?

-"BB"-