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Sunday, October 14, 2007

Quote of the Night

"Cleveland, you can breathe now."
WTAM's Tom Hamilton, after Grady Sizemore made a diving catch of Kevin Youkilis' line drive on the 11th pitch of his bottom of the 9th, 2 out, runner on second at bat against Rafael Betancourt.

As a note, I wasn't breathing at the time. I also spoke to: My sister (in Baltimore), my father (in Cleveland), and my brother (in New York), all within 60 seconds of that happening.

Geez.

UPDATE

Holy. Freaking. Crap. This is the strangest and most amazing game I've listened to in a LONG, long time.

Current thoughts:
  • 13-6 in the 11th!?
  • I think even Joe Borowski can hold a 7-run lead. I think.
  • I agree with TheApple - too bad baseball doesn't go by sudden death! On the other hand, scoring 7 is SO much more fun... and really kills the Sox bullpen.
  • Eric Wedge has incredible guts.
  • Trot Nixon must be the happiest man in Boston.
  • I wonder if Manny knows they lost... Manny Ramirez is one of the best players to ever play the game. He waited until the last possible moment to swing at that Perez pitch... and took it DEEP out of the park to the opposite field. That's insane.
  • CC Sabathia, Fausto Carmona, and Rafael Perez ALL got rocked... and the Indians still split in Boston. If I'm a Sox fan, I'm shaking so hard right now. As an Indians fan, I'm beyond thrilled.
  • As a Clevelander, all these good things happening is just strange. I'm not even worried about using the Browns as my survivor pick tomorrow. Is that crazy?!
  • Geez. YES! I don't even know what to say. This is craziness. It's only 1-1!! AAAH!!! I just hope I don't have a heart attack over the next 3 weeks.
  • GO TRIBE!!

13 comments:

  1. Winning games = good
    Heart attack = bad
    Stealing my earring when I have a very early flight = very very bad

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  2. Our friend from Cleveland just lost his mother. She was sick for only a day. He kept saying that she asked about the Indians. . .

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  3. I have to say this, though, Ez. The Indians can't expect to win games if their starting pitchers keep walking in runs.
    -OC

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  4. I thought I was going to need more antacids with all those walks.

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  5. Was it just me or did the strike zone for both teams get bigger once the starters left the game?

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  6. Doesn't the new Israeli Baseball League go by sudden death, or something similar, in the form of a home run competition, if the score is tied after the 7th (final) inning?

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  7. CC Sabathia, Fausto Carmona, and Rafael Perez ALL got rocked... and the Indians still split in Boston. If I'm a Sox fan, I'm shaking so hard right now. As an Indians fan, I'm beyond thrilled.

    I don't know about that. I think the Sox have the pitching advantage if both teams go with their 3rd and 4th starter. But I'd be very happy to see you be right.

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  8. Diana - LOL

    MiI - I'm really not sure what to say to that...!!

    OC - True...

    EK - Seriously. This is so not like them!

    G - Hehe. I only listened, so I can't comment, but it sounded like it was awfully small for Schilling and Carmona from what Hamilton/Hegan were saying.

    Anon - I think that's correct.

    Nephtuli - Not sure either team has an advantage; both teams should be able to hit, especially factoring in how Dice-K has been pitching lately. Throw in the home field (which usually doesn't matter in baseball, but I think will in this case because of the hitting), and it's looking good. Figure if the Tribe takes 2 of 3, that's pressure on the Sox going into Game 6 with Carmona pitching [despite his last start].

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  9. Sox are gonna take it. They have better pitching ( lower ERA and OPB against), slightly better fielding, and better hitting ( higher OBP by 20 points and higher OPS by 40 points).
    You need to give me a reason why the Tribe will pull it off.
    Moving onto the NLCS...if you look at the numbers, its not such a big surprise that the Rockies are dominating. They are up there as one of the best fielding clubs in Major League history! Were 12th overall in pitching - pretty good considering they are in one of the worst balparks (Park factor of 1.15 i think).
    5th Overall in hitting. Compare that to the D-backs who had a .315 OBP for the season!!!
    Sox vs. Rockies World Series.
    Red Sox sweep or in 5 (depending if Ubaldo Jimnez can throw his 100MPH stuff with location).

    Sorry Ezzie. I hate to say all this considering ima Yankee fan....but you cant argue the facts.

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  10. Ezzie - You say "especially factoring in how Dice-K has been pitching lately", yet you also say "that's pressure on the Sox going into Game 6 with Carmona pitching [despite his last start]."

    Are you going to judge past performance or not? Or does it depend if you're juding an Indian or a Red Sox?

    Sounds like typical biased analysis to me. This is what got you in trouble in Fantasy Baseball.

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  11. Rea - OY. Okay, so the slight advantage in OBP is somewhat moot in a short series. Heck, just about all stats are moot. According to stats, the Indians should have lost both Games 1 & 2.

    Agree on the Rockies, btw. I said Indians in 6, Rockies in 7 (I thought Livan would continue his dominance of them in 2 & 6), Indians in 6 over Rockies.

    It should come down to who is hot. Currently, that's just about everyone in the Indians' lineup, particularly the guys whose numbers in the regular season were well under expectations (Sizemore & Hafner). You DO see the effect patience by each team's lineup is having on the opposing pitchers - Sabathia a bunch of walks, Carmona 5 walks, Schilling struggling (even if still not walking), etc. Sizemore's HR came after an 8-pitch AB by Blake, which let them see a lot more pitches. These things are all important.

    Right now, the advantage is to the Indians because of momentum; because they won one in Fenway; because they're 1-1 despite terrible outings from both of their aces and their best reliever.

    There's an obvious difference between Dice-K struggling for about 2 months now and Carmona struggling for one start. I don't get the comparison. Dice-K has looked like his arm is dead for a while now; I don't think that you can say that Carmona's arm suddenly died on him considering his previous start - he just had a bad start against a good team.

    What got me into trouble in fantasy? CC, Carmona, Martinez in the second half, and Peralta? It wasn't the Indians that cost me, it was a combination of rain, JJ Putz, Aryeh Love's refusal to move Hanley Ramirez, and Shabbos. (And making my 'move' too late.)

    I don't think anyone thought Sowers was a bad pick in the beginning, and Barfield was thought to be a "steal" - ya know, like your boy on TB.

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  12. None of this "geez" stuff. This is a Jewish blog.

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