I just watched a no-hitter. Alas, it was against my beloved Rays. Apparently, 1965 was the last time that a team–the Chicago Cubs, no less–were no hit twice in a season in which one of the no-hitters was a perfect game.
Filed under: Current Events, Sports on June 25th, 2010 | No Comments »
When it comes to baseball, I am ultra-conservative: I don’t believe in interleague play; I don’t like the wild card; I think there should only be two divisions in each league; I oppose the designated hitter rule; I think players should have to wear stirrups; I believe that baseball parks should have organs and not use pre-recorded music; I think the first game of the season should always be played in Cincinnati, and never outside the United States. As a traditionalist, I naturally oppose instant replay, since I recognize that umpires almost always make the right call. But I think that something must be done about the botched call that cost Detroit’s Armando Galarraga a perfect game tonight against Cleveland. Bud Selig, who has done so much to hurt baseball must step in, void Jim Joyce’s call (which Joyce admits was wrong), and score Galarraga’s effort perfect. The pitcher won’t get to enjoy the roar of the home crowd, and he will have missed out on being carried from the field on the shoulders of his teammates, but his name will go down in history. He deserves it.
UPDATE: A day after the tragically bad call by Jim Joyce, he stood on the field in Detroit, visibly weeping, and shook Armando Galarraga’s hand. Joyce is clearly distraught about his mistake – obviously more upset than Galarraga himself, who has handled this ordeal with tremendous class.
Meanwhile, on mlb.com, Hal Bodley makes a considered, but ultimately illogical defense of Bud Selig’s decision to not interfere with the outcome of the game. Bodley admits that his first reaction was to demand that Joyce’s call be overturned. But, he writes, “had Selig taken the easy way out he would have established a precedent that could have come back to haunt him and the sport. Years from now, that decision would be an integral part of his legacy”.
True, overturning the call would be unusual, and it would go against the perfectly imperfect nature of baseball, in which human error is sometimes a part of the game, but umpires’ decisions are final. But where Bodley loses me is in his correct assertion that this call will lead to expanded use of instant replay. What I wonder is this: if Joyce’s call leads to more instant replay, which will inevitably lead to other umpires’ calls being overturned, what’s the point of not just reversing this decision right now?
Filed under: Current Events, Sports on June 2nd, 2010 | 2 Comments »
My beloved Rays just beat the Hated New York Yankees two nights in a row, and are now five games up in the American League East, and far-and-away the best team in baseball. No one else is even close. The Rays’ 30-11 start is better than any team in fifteen years. Off to Houston, where they should have no trouble against the Astros. If there is going to be inter-league play (and there shouldn’t be; it’s an abomination), I’m glad we aren’t up against Philadelphia.
Filed under: Current Events, Sports on May 20th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
I am upset by an article in today’s paper describing cyclist Floyd Landis’s admission that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his 2006 Tour de France win. (He lost the title upon being accused, but denied the charges until now.) Worse, he implicates several other cyclists in the scandal, including Lance Armstrong. After recently reading up on baseball stars Barry Bonds and Manny Ramirez, I cannot help but wonder if there are any top-level athletes in America who do not cheat.
That said, if someone makes performance-enhancing drugs for writers, the authors of the aforementioned article might want to look into it. Consider the following paragraph:
Landis provided detailed information about his own doping practices, saying he consistently used the blood-booster EPO to increase his endurance, testosterone, human growth hormone and blood transfusions.
I am surprised that the big league New York Times editors didn’t spot the blunder. Had they taken Professor McCrea’s Advanced Exposition course, they would know that the last item in a series should always be the longest. As it stands, the sentence seems to say that EPO increased Landis’ endurance and testosterone. Here’s how the sentence ought to look:
Landis provided detailed information about his own doping practices, saying he consistently used testosterone, blood transfusions, human growth hormone, and the blood-booster EPO to increase his endurance.
Even that, however, might not be enough, since one might now infer that all those items contributed to Landis’s increased endurance, when, in fact, only EPO was responsible. I would take the last element in that series and write it like this:
…and the blood booster EPO, which increases endurance.
That’s better.
Filed under: Current Events, Musings, Sports on May 20th, 2010 | No Comments »
Baseball is an old game. Men have been playing it for hundreds of years, and playing it professionally for more than a hundred. Well over two thousand Major League games are played each season (counting post-season play, the number is closer to 2,500). Still, since 1880 there have been fewer than twenty perfect games. The most popular way to put this feat in perspective is to point out that more Americans have traveled to the moon than thrown a perfect game. It is an indescribably difficult task for a pitcher: allow no opposing batter to reach base, period. Sometimes a decade will pass between one perfect game and the next. Last year, my beloved Rays lost a perfect game to Chicago’s Mark Buerhle. Yesterday, they lost a perfect game to Oakland’s Dallas Braden. The Rays are the best team in baseball right now, and have only lost three or so times on the road all season. Dallas Braden earned that perfect game. Watch some clips.
Filed under: Current Events, Sports on May 10th, 2010 | No Comments »