Joe is the master of one thing at a time! Hitters got hot last night and all they've worked on is dialing in on Kluber & Miller. Upside to hitters... been saying it all day
Here comes Chapman. As any good USSSA coach knows, since he pitched less than three innings yesterday, he can pitch five tonight.
I'll give you that one Root!
TPM posted:I'll give you that one Root!
Lol! It sure gets interesting now. Especially with both closers basically burned.
Holy freakin' smokes. Baseball is having a banner series.
How about a rain out and we finish tomorrow. Another day with baseball in the spotlight.
Well you have to admit, its not over until until its over.
Over managed game. JMO
Glad neither one is my team!!!!
This is awesome two teams who haven't won in forever are tied in the 9th of a game seven.
Go Tribe!
FWIW, Coghlan player who took out Posey.
i think Maddon is one hell of a coach, but some of these decisions have me scratching my head.
Epic battle
Its anyones game now.
roothog66 posted:i think Maddon is one hell of a coach, but some of these decisions have me scratching my head.
I'm not going to second guess him, but only because I want to keep some room between me and Joe Buck.
But what a great game and series.
Gotta figure the Cubs have the pitching advantage right now.
Season is just too damn long.
Joe Maddon is great at getting a lot out of his players. But he dodged a bullet tonight. Had the Cubs lost he would have had a lot of explaining to do. Every time a pitcher looked like he was getting in a groove he took them out. First one cost them two runs, second one cost them three runs. Safety squeeze with two strikes with a guy that just homered his last AB? You look like a genius if it works, but it didn't.
That is five of the Indians six runs in the first eight innings. Still a great game by a bunch of young players (and a few old ones) on both teams.
So many players in the game tonight (12 on each team) that we saw at PG showcases when they were in HS, it was hard to pull for either team. But 8 in the Cubs starting lineup was neat, including their entire infield. Then Almora with some great base running in the 10th really helped the Cubs.
108 years sure is a long time. Theo has now ended two of the longest streaks without a championship. Amazing!
What a great game, Madden didn't have his best night IMO but it worked out. The 3-2 squeeze was terrible IMO as well.
I got to spend the entire night watching with my 2017, that was priceless for me, it might be the last time we get to do that...when they pulled out the tarp at midnight and he was yawning I sent him to bed, he was pissed but he understood. 12 minutes later I sent him a text that I know u r still up and they are taking the field. he was back down in about 4 seconds!
Outstanding AB by Zobrsit to take that pitch to left. Davis had 2 huge swings when they matter most...I loved the fact that the runs were scored on well hit balls for both sides. Great game, great series - outstanding way to enter the great abyss we call winter!!
You got to believe!!!!!
Congratulations to Cub Nation!
The only mistake I think Joe made was bringing out Chapman for the 9th and that worked out. Hendricks was on borrowed time because he could have lost it at any point. He was getting hit hard but luckily some good defensive plays saved him. First out of the game was line drive to Heyward, Bryant caught a hard hit down the line, he gave up 4 hits and all of them were very hard hit. Regular season game you stick with him to see if he can stay in that groove but game 7 is not the time to see if he was getting in a groove or not. But if plate umpire calls strike 3 like he should have then Hendricks stays longer but he didn't.
Lester made one bad pitch when he started on the mound. Outside of that he made the two hitters (Santana and Kipnis????) look bad. So those two runs weren't the Indians accomplishing anything but more of the Cubs just not getting the job done or bad luck. This happens in game 7 but you just have to weather the storm. Lester got pulled because he had to be running out of gas. This was his typical bullpen day but it went way longer than it would. We got Chapman to close out games but he didn't.
Baez came into the game 4-25 with 11 strike outs. That homerun was more luck than coming out of a slump. The rest of his at bats in game 7 were still atrocious. Maddon might have been the only manager in any level of baseball to make that call but the chances of Baez getting a hit are about as close to 0% as you could get. The chances of Baez having a productive out to score Heyward was just slightly higher than 0%. He was not going to do anything to score that run so why not bunt?
You know what? Who cares? Cubs won and none of that matters. Here's to the next 108 years or 365 days.
What an unlikely thread this was 
Baez is a classic case of why you live and sometimes die with your horses. All it takes is one swing!
Great WS! Congrats to Cubs!
My .02:
Need to change game start times to earlier in the day...too many kids could not watch some really good baseball games with 8pm EST start, too late.
Umpiring behind the plate was brutal entire series.
Fox crew was entertaining to watch. Pete Rose, Alex Rodriguez and Frank Thomas were great! John Smoltz was awesome.
What a game, what a series!!! To all the Cubs and the Indians......THANK YOU!!!!
Prospect2020TX posted:Great WS! Congrats to Cubs!
My .02:
Need to change game start times to earlier in the day...too many kids could not watch some really good baseball games with 8pm EST start, too late.
Umpiring behind the plate was brutal entire series.
Fox crew was entertaining to watch. Pete Rose, Alex Rodriguez and Frank Thomas were great! John Smoltz was awesome.
Huge cub family from the Chicago area. I can tell you that my family, including my 18 YO have been walking Zombies for the last month or so. Though last night made it all worth it. Most of my kids teachers blew off class yesterday and told them they will again today. They know the kids are tired.
my hats off to the Indians...what a classy team and organization. Im so happy for the Cubs...the only 2 things id have changed that Maddon did was not take out Hendricks after the one walk and not squeeze bunt with Javy with full count....roller coaster of emotions and i'm just so happy for us Cub fans, especially the older generation ie my dad who is in failing health and my 99 year old grandpa!! We'll enjoy this at least for a year!!
Great theatre!! Great drama. Game seven, close game . Home team ties it up to force extra innings, Rain delay. What a night??!! The only downside to the game was the end time. An 8pm start and finish about 1am?! Long night. Long night with multiple highs and lows. Pickoff play and savvy base running. Errors and bad throws that are indicative of how tight the margin of error is. The game had everything. Wow! Still reeling over that one.
With all due respect to my wife and kids...the best night of my life! Actually there was this one time back in college...
Now Heyward please get to work on that swing...dear Lord
Cubbies did it. Good on them and their fans.
The other downside: When the dust settles and people come back down to earth they will eventually realize that despite all the drama and delirium of the W that baseball actually lost something last night.
The Cubs are no longer special and are now just another team. As with the Red Sox 10 years ago who went from tortured souls to just different set of Yankee fans with worse accents, the Cub fans will never be the same. It will be worse if they actually fulfill the potential and win a couple more in the next 5 years.
I am sad to see it go.
im not sad to see it go!! lovable losers no more!
So many reasons I've loved the Cubs and why they were so important in my life but being losers ain't one of them!
luv baseball posted:Cubbies did it. Good on them and their fans.
The other downside: When the dust settles and people come back down to earth they will eventually realize that despite all the drama and delirium of the W that baseball actually lost something last night.
The Cubs are no longer special and are now just another team. As with the Red Sox 10 years ago who went from tortured souls to just different set of Yankee fans with worse accents, the Cub fans will never be the same. It will be worse if they actually fulfill the potential and win a couple more in the next 5 years.
I am sad to see it go.
As a fan of baseball I see where you're coming from. As a fan of the Cubs........WHO CARES????? Bring on the several championships and winning and hating from others. Winning is so much better than being lovable losers.
Congrats to the Cubs! One hell of a World Series.
coach2709 posted:Why would anybody be surprised the Cubs are struggling despite being the best team? They are super young and have very little postseason experience. Rizzo, Bryant, Baez, Russell, Schwarber, Contreras, Hendricks, Heyward, Edwards, Soler, Montgomery, Almora, Rondon and Grimm are all 28 and younger with most 25 and younger. These are kids playing in the World Series and they are still in great shape to come back and win it all. If 2015 (or something close) shows up it will go seven but if not then who knows.
If anyone thinks not winning the series means the season is a disappointment just doesn't get it. I've been a Cubs fan for over 30 years and I've never been more excited than I am now. They are set up to make a 5 to 7 year run of multiple championships. I understand there's no guarantee they will win any in that span but no other team in MLB is this stocked at the MLB level and loaded with MiLB talent.
Cubs win in 7 - mark it down.
Man I wish I had put money on this "mark it down"
As a Tribe fan, congrats to the Cubs!
I really love the makeup of my team but I've been saying all season long that Shaw is a four letter word. He wasn't even close to hitting his spots on several occasions last night... grooving it when ahead and missing badly when he needed a strike. I was hoping Salazar could come back after a strong short appearance in game 6 where it looked like his electric stuff was starting to re-appear.
Really shocked that I woke up this morning and the earth was still spinning. LuvBaseball is actually right. It is a great day for Cubs fans but in the coming weeks and months, part of the emotional experience will be a little bit of a loss of identity. We Cleveland fans experienced this after the Cavs title, breaking the whole "heartbreak city" culture that we associated with for most or all of our lives. Of course, the good far outweighs the bad but I think you'll be surprised at the profound effect.
But, save that for another day... Parade on!
That's a good point, Cabbage. Speaking as a fan of a different NL team, I'd say that that concern will likely be more than made up for by the fact that this team is poised to be the dominant team in the league for the rest of the decade, which is something you rarely see those days, but wow, with those starters and that offense and all that youthful talent, they look like the team that can do it, even if Chapman walks.
... or not. I still remember Davey Johnson after the 1986 WS saying that the seemingly stacked Mets were poised to dominate for the next few seasons. But as Davey soon found out, stuff happens.
This has to go down as one of the all time great Series.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with this from above: "Umpiring behind the plate was brutal entire series."
Actually the umpiring in general was poor, which is amazing when you consider that the guys picked to handle the WS are supposed to be the cream of the crop. Video replays spared us some of what otherwise would've been embarrassing calls, e.g., the muff by Baez when trying to turn a bare-handed DP last night, initially called an out at 2nd. Unfortunately we still have no help for the ball/strike situation.
If the still relatively new commissioner wants to make his mark, he can work on more accountability in this area. Hendricks got pulled last night because of one terrible call -- maybe an overreaction by Maddon, but still, a two-run inning doesn't happen if a correct strike call is made on what was, quite frankly, not even a borderline pitch. I will say, the calls weren't biased; it went both ways. Miller had another guy K'ed who ended up walking, leading to another run. It went on all night.
In the penultimate game of a season that ran for over 7 months, it was an embarrassment. And frankly, Joe West was just as bad in game 6.
Players who perform that poorly lose their jobs. Umpiring is not the U.S. Supreme Court. When umpires screw up repeatedly, they need to go. It's not like there aren't hundreds of aspiring prospects working hard to get better for the all-too-rare opening at the MLB level.
Did anyone catch Smoltz's explanation of why the catcher didn't do more to alert Kluber that Schwarber had taken off on the stolen base early in the game?
Midlo Dad posted:This has to go down as one of the all time great Series.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with this from above: "Umpiring behind the plate was brutal entire series."
Actually the umpiring in general was poor, which is amazing when you consider that the guys picked to handle the WS are supposed to be the cream of the crop. Video replays spared us some of what otherwise would've been embarrassing calls, e.g., the muff by Baez when trying to turn a bare-handed DP last night, initially called an out at 2nd. Unfortunately we still have no help for the ball/strike situation.
If the still relatively new commissioner wants to make his mark, he can work on more accountability in this area. Hendricks got pulled last night because of one terrible call -- maybe an overreaction by Maddon, but still, a two-run inning doesn't happen if a correct strike call is made on what was, quite frankly, not even a borderline pitch. I will say, the calls weren't biased; it went both ways. Miller had another guy K'ed who ended up walking, leading to another run. It went on all night.
In the penultimate game of a season that ran for over 7 months, it was an embarrassment. And frankly, Joe West was just as bad in game 6.
Players who perform that poorly lose their jobs. Umpiring is not the U.S. Supreme Court. When umpires screw up repeatedly, they need to go. It's not like there aren't hundreds of aspiring prospects working hard to get better for the all-too-rare opening at the MLB level.
Totally agree - how in the world they called an out at second on Baez muff is just as astounding as the strike three Hendricks didn't get. But you're right it went both ways. Can't remember the pitcher but late in the game Bryant struck out looking which started a rally. My sleep deprived brain can't remember the details right now but I remember thinking we dodged a bullet with that one.
coach2709 posted:Midlo Dad posted:This has to go down as one of the all time great Series.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with this from above: "Umpiring behind the plate was brutal entire series."
Actually the umpiring in general was poor, which is amazing when you consider that the guys picked to handle the WS are supposed to be the cream of the crop. Video replays spared us some of what otherwise would've been embarrassing calls, e.g., the muff by Baez when trying to turn a bare-handed DP last night, initially called an out at 2nd. Unfortunately we still have no help for the ball/strike situation.
If the still relatively new commissioner wants to make his mark, he can work on more accountability in this area. Hendricks got pulled last night because of one terrible call -- maybe an overreaction by Maddon, but still, a two-run inning doesn't happen if a correct strike call is made on what was, quite frankly, not even a borderline pitch. I will say, the calls weren't biased; it went both ways. Miller had another guy K'ed who ended up walking, leading to another run. It went on all night.
In the penultimate game of a season that ran for over 7 months, it was an embarrassment. And frankly, Joe West was just as bad in game 6.
Players who perform that poorly lose their jobs. Umpiring is not the U.S. Supreme Court. When umpires screw up repeatedly, they need to go. It's not like there aren't hundreds of aspiring prospects working hard to get better for the all-too-rare opening at the MLB level.
Totally agree - how in the world they called an out at second on Baez muff is just as astounding as the strike three Hendricks didn't get. But you're right it went both ways. Can't remember the pitcher but late in the game Bryant struck out looking which started a rally. My sleep deprived brain can't remember the details right now but I remember thinking we dodged a bullet with that one.
Ump was looking at the bag for the touch, assumed the catch.