@adbono posted:Pretty funny…….
Needed that, my day just upgraded to crappy.
I am enjoying the defensive plays this year.
I really like being right ;-) so far, but honestly I'd rather see the Rangers. I'm so tired of the Astros. Great name for a dog but not a baseball team!
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Due to the past history of the Astros with Altuve, I am all in on the Rangers for game 7.
However, WS Champs should go to Phillies!
Philadelphia sports talk radio is so much more entertaining when the city’s teams make the post season and then fail. The further they go and fail the more entertaining.
Last year was a bonanza. The Eagles lost the Super Bowl. The Phillies lost the World Series. Some people even cared the Union lost the MLS championship despite being up a goal with minutes to play.
It’s very risky to get emotionally invested in the Rangers. They have a history of always disappointing. This year’s team is fun and different. But they are an enigma. When I expect them to lose, they win. When they win enough to convince me they are good, they lose. I expect them to lose game 7 tonight, but I would love to be wrong.
I don’t like the Astros at all. But I have a different take on Altuve than most people. An ex teammate of mine was a scout with the Astros when Altuve was early in his career. One summer in 2010 or2011 we were in Houston for a travel ball tournament and my friend got us tickets that allowed us to be on the field for batting practice - right behind the batting cage. Astro players were milling about all around us but none of them spoke to us. Except Altuve. Without any prompt he walked over and spent 15 minutes talking to my mother and my son. He signed autographs and gave away batting gloves without even being asked. It was the kind of gesture that builds the fan base and grows the game. 50 players had a chance to do something like that on that day. But only one did it. Jose Altuve.
@adbono posted:It’s very risky to get emotionally invested in the Rangers. They have a history of always disappointing. This year’s team is fun and different. But they are an enigma. When I expect them to lose, they win. When they win enough to convince me they are good, they lose. I expect them to lose game 7 tonight, but I would love to be wrong.
I don’t like the Astros at all. But I have a different take on Altuve than most people. An ex teammate of mine was a scout with the Astros when Altuve was early in his career. One summer in 2010 or2011 we were in Houston for a travel ball tournament and my friend got us tickets that allowed us to be on the field for batting practice - right behind the batting cage. Astro players were milling about all around us but none of them spoke to us. Except Altuve. Without any prompt he walked over and spent 15 minutes talking to my mother and my son. He signed autographs and gave away batting gloves without even being asked. It was the kind of gesture that builds the fan base and grows the game. 50 players had a chance to do something like that on that day. But only one did it. Jose Altuve.
Honestly I agree that Altuve seems like a pretty good guy. But I can never get over watching him smash Chapman's change-up and then clutching at his jersey as he approached home plate, literally begging his teammates not to rip it off. I'm pretty sure there was a signaling device telling him what pitch was coming. That playoffs and cheating affected so many players on other teams. Look what it did for Chapman's legacy. But I'm old enough to recognize you can be a good person and still make mistakes, particularly if the clubhouse culture takes you there. That said, I hope the Rangers @#$@ing destroy the Astros in 7.
The video that shows the Astro fans streaming towards the exits as Adolis Garcia rounds the bases (after hitting the grand slam in the 9th) is awesome!
I realize the game has changed. But when Garcia spiked his bat after the game six homer all I could think was WWGD (What would Gibson do?) and started laughing. Gibson wouldn’t have hit him in the arm. He would have drilled him in the head.
@RJM posted:I realize the game has changed. But when Garcia spiked his bat after the game six homer all I could think was WWGD (What would Gibson do?) and started laughing. Gibson wouldn’t have drilled hit him in the arm. He would have drilled him in the head.
I am a Rangers fan but I agree. I have no problem with the Astros throwing at Garcia in game 5 after he pimped the HR. I would have thrown at him too. You can make a case that his showboating cost the Rangers the game. Dusty Baker took advantage of how the events played out and intentionally delayed his exit (after being tossed) in order to make Leclerc sit longer in between pitches. And it worked. So all these so called “celebrations” are not harmless. Sometimes they actually hurt your teammates. These are the things that the “let the kids play” crowd don’t think about.
When Altuve hit his homer and circled the bases calmly and headed for the dugout. He knew his team had a game to focus on and close out.
@RJM posted:Philadelphia sports talk radio is so much more entertaining when the city’s teams make the post season and then fail. The further they go and fail the more entertaining.
Last year was a bonanza. The Eagles lost the Super Bowl. The Phillies lost the World Series. Some people even cared the Union lost the MLS championship despite being up a goal with minutes to play.
I am just glad they stopped singing dancing on my own
Was the pitch clock non existent for the Rangers/Astros series? It felt like there was quite a bit of time in between pitches and they were not showing it on the broadcast
Who are people for?
Rangers over here.
Rangers only because they drafted Wyatt Langford!
Rangers!
My son and I have had some fun back and forth during these playoffs. He loves Corbin Carroll because I am sure he reminds him of himself. I like him too. After the two-run triple, he texted me, "Corbin Carroll - best player on the field." I texted, "Lets not get carried away. Corbin Carroll is the best little guy on the field. The best player on the field is Cory Seager." Of course, I was proven right in the ninth inning. I've always loved Cory Seager. Love the hard-nose way he plays the game and the determination he shows. He usually doesn't get emotional but I can only imagine the adrenaline shot he got after the ninth inning homerun.
Adolis Garcia.... He was in danger of being out of baseball and then we have a new collective bargaining agreement where certain things were no longer tested for. He's not the only one imho. It has come back to baseball in a big way for both pitchers and hitters. Brady Anderson once hit 50 homeruns out of nowhere. These things work for 100 mph pitching velocities and 110 mph exit velocities. The hypocrisy is obvious.
@anotherparent posted:Who are people for?
Nobody, just great baseball and we got it last night. That was great all-around baseball by both teams.
Two things stood out to me going forward. First, Arizona is going to keep stealing bases like it is nobody's business. Too bad the free Taco Bell promotion is not based on quantity, because we'd be eating a lot of tacos after this series! Arizona has the team speed to do it. Rangers pitchers aren't keeping them close to the bag. I expect Arizona to push the envelope on stealing bases. Second, I'm seriously questioning Sewald as the Arizona closer. Ginkel may be a better option, as he's got "stuff". Sewald just doesn't look like closer material on TV. Maybe he typically has a lot of movement on his pitches, but it didn't look that way last night. They should have won game 1. JMO.
PS...On second thought, I'm going Diamondbacks. I was born in AZ.
@fenwaysouth posted:Nobody, just great baseball and we got it last night. That was great all-around baseball by both teams.
Two things stood out to me going forward. First, Arizona is going to keep stealing bases like it is nobody's business. Too bad the free Taco Bell promotion is not based on quantity, because we'd be eating a lot of tacos after this series! Arizona has the team speed to do it. Rangers pitchers aren't keeping them close to the bag. I expect Arizona to push the envelope on stealing bases. Second, I'm seriously questioning Sewald as the Arizona closer. Ginkel may be a better option, as he's got "stuff". Sewald just doesn't look like closer material on TV. Maybe he typically has a lot of movement on his pitches, but it didn't look that way last night. They should have won game 1. JMO.
PS...On second thought, I'm going Diamondbacks. I was born in AZ.
That’s been the story of the Rangers all season. They shouldn’t have…… started the season 40-20, made the playoffs after losing 16 of 20 games in Aug/Sept, swept Tampa on the road, swept Baltimore, beaten the Astros, won game 1 last night. And on and on. They shouldn’t have done any of those things according to all the talking heads. But they did do those things. All of them. They may not win it all but they are a crazy fun team to root for. Last night was one of the best World Series game 1s that I have ever seen.
I don’t really care who wins. I just want quality games. Supposedly the pitch clock is being used in the post season. But it seems pitchers are taking longer. Games are taking longer. It was 3+ hours after nine last night.
I didn't realize there was still baseball being played after the Yanks ended their season. But seriously, it is good to see these two teams make it to the series given their preseason odds. I did enjoy game 1 but game 2 not so much. I agree with RJM it is too long.
Hey 3 hours is better than 4 hours that it felt like the Yanks and Sox would play at times 20+ times a season... Having playoff or WS games ending sometime after midnight on the East Coast - yeah, a sure fire way to grow your fan base.
Of course I haven't watched much of the postseason - it's just not compelling enough sadly.
@2022NYC posted:I didn't realize there was still baseball being played after the Yanks ended their season.
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Some could argue there was very little baseball played during the whole season in the bottom 40% of the 2023 AL East! 
I think this has become a great post season. The WC and division rounds where kinda lopsided but the CS where great and the WS is 3-1 so far but 2 of the rangers wins where really close.
I'm reading negative commentary about having a bullpen game in the world series.
One of the biggest mysteries of this post season is John Smoltz’ disdain for the Texas Rangers. I first noticed it in the series vs Baltimore and it has continued in every series since. I liked and respected Smoltz as a player. But as an announcer his bias against the Rangers has been blatant and unrelenting. And extremely unprofessional. It’s almost as if he is doing a bit. Fox needs to do better.
Saw a funny line in The Boston Globe yesterday. It’s a bit snarky, but true …
If a World Series is played between two wild card teams in front of a small tv audience does it make a noise?
The playoffs have been great. This is a mediocre at best World Series. For the second straight year the sixth best team in the NL made it.
@RJM posted:Saw a funny line in The Boston Globe yesterday. It’s a bit snarky, but true …
If a World Series is played between two wild card teams in front of a small tv audience does it make a noise?
The playoffs have been great. This is a mediocre at best World Series. For the second straight year the sixth best team in the NL made it.
The rangers are quite different from the dbacks though. They only made it via wild card but they were tied to the division winning astros and had the best run Differential in the AL, only the braves and dodgers had a higher run differential in mlb.
They did not make the division because they had a .389 record in one run games and played .458 ball in July (74-88 pace) when a lot of their stars where injured, their true talent level is really much higher (96 win expected record based on run differential).
Basically the luck they didn't have in the regular season they did have in the post season when most of the close games went their way.
@adbono posted:One of the biggest mysteries of this post season is John Smoltz’ disdain for the Texas Rangers. I first noticed it in the series vs Baltimore and it has continued in every series since. I liked and respected Smoltz as a player. But as an announcer his bias against the Rangers has been blatant and unrelenting. And extremely unprofessional. It’s almost as if he is doing a bit. Fox needs to do better.
Now don't be so hard on ol' Smoltzy - He had great insight all series long and especially last night for example with a Dback runner on base he stated that the batter had an opportunity for a 2 run homer. You dont get baseball insight like that from just anyone... Great to see the Rangers close it out!
@FriarFred posted:Great to see the Rangers close it out!
Former Gator LHP Dane Dunning will receive a WS Championship ring.
I agree with you about Smoltz, you can't get much better insight on the game than from him.
Playoffs as a whole were great this year. World Series was good, but not great. Smoltz broadcast was a bright spot for me. I like listening to him the most of all the analysts. World Series ratings were in the toilet as a whole, but I'm pretty sure everybody that frequents HSBBWeb was watching it. We're all huge baseball fans regardless of where we live and which team we follow most. The overall ratings tell a grim story when there isn't a major team to root for, or against. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/1...-series-ratings.html.
Defenses really stepped it up in the playoffs this year and flashed the leather. I really enjoy great defense and great pitching. Love me a pitching duel! I forgot what good defenses looked like as I was sentenced to a Red Sox season of absolute crap. Sometimes I'm not sure why the Red Sox players even bother to wear mitts.
146 days until opening day in 2024.
PS...there is one beef I had with the playoff format. I was listening to a podcast a couple days ago and Commissioner Manfred addressed it head on. They've got to consider re-seeding teams as the playoff results come in. That way the regular season games matter more than they did this year. I do feel the top seeds were slighted in these matchups, and should have been re-seeded.
As always, JMO.
Defense was great and definitely a highlight for me as well. Bullpen game was painful otherwise we really enjoyed the post season in our family. Tinkering with the seeding would be a good move IMHO.
@fenwaysouth, this is rare but I disagree with most of your post.
Smoltz was very negative towards the Rangers and a lot of people heard his comments the way I did. Check out comments on Twitter if you want a bigger sample size.
Regarding reseeding…..the 5 seed Rangers had to beat 100 win Tampa on the road which they did in a 2 game sweep. Then beat 100 win Orioles two games on the road before winning one game at home for a 3 game sweep. Then the ALCS vs Houston went 7 games. All 3 of the Rangers AL series were matchups where they were the lower seed playing a higher seed that had home field advantage. And all of those teams had a few days off in the beginning to set their pitching rotations and heal dings. The reseed argument comes up every time an east or west coast team doesn’t make it to the WS and it’s all about TV ratings and money.
And finally, there is not enough talk about the Rangers winning 11 straight post season games on the road. That’s a record that will never be broken as they played the most possible road games. Because they were a 5 seed.
So we will agree to disagree. As my Dad used to say, that’s why they make different flavors of ice cream.
@adbono posted:@fenwaysouth, this is rare but I disagree with most of your post.
Smoltz was very negative towards the Rangers and a lot of people heard his comments the way I did. Check out comments on Twitter if you want a bigger sample size.
Regarding reseeding…..the 5 seed Rangers had to beat 100 win Tampa on the road which they did in a 2 game sweep. Then beat 100 win Orioles two games on the road before winning one game at home for a 3 game sweep. Then the ALCS vs Houston went 7 games. All 3 of the Rangers AL series were matchups where they were the lower seed playing a higher seed that had home field advantage. And all of those teams had a few days off in the beginning to set their pitching rotations and heal dings. The reseed argument comes up every time an east or west coast team doesn’t make it to the WS and it’s all about TV ratings and money.
And finally, there is not enough talk about the Rangers winning 11 straight post season games on the road. That’s a record that will never be broken as they played the most possible road games. Because they were a 5 seed.
So we will agree to disagree. As my Dad used to say, that’s why they make different flavors of ice cream.
Fair enough. Yes, I heard Smoltz and yes there were some things he probably shouldn't have said. It didn't bother my viewing experience at all.
Yes, I'm in awe that the Rangers won 11 road games. That is unbelievable. A big tip of the cap to them. They absolutely earned it and got everything they deserved. Bochy is a master.
My viewpoint of the reseeding has very little to do with East/West coast teams. Possibly, the commissioner has a different agenda as it is about money and TV ratings for him. I think the re-seeding should be a reward because a team fought for the privilege of that at seeding across 162 games. I don't think the playoffs should be a new season where everybody's regular season record is expunged based on a static seeding bracket. I think the playoffs should be a continuation of the regular season and the highest performers get an advantage with a dynamic bracket that rewards performance. JMO.
Least watched World Series in history.
It was good to see other teams get a chance. I really thought Phillies would pull it off, but Texas was obviously built for the stretch. Management did a great job.
But I agree the seeding needs tinkering.
I know it's partly due to timezones, but I wish they would put the games on earlier: at 7 pm EST instead of 8. When my kids were young, we wouldn't let them stay up to watch the end of games when they went past 10 pm. I even wrote to MLB once, and asked how they expected to create younger fans if the games were on so late that kids couldn't watch. For a few years they were starting at 7, now they're back to 8.
Who decided that "prime time" goes until midnight? Working adults have to go to bed earlier than that, too!