Arena The Major League Baseball Thread

INTY, I feel the need to point out that half the Giants fans in this thread have been reasonable this whole time.

 

In all fairness, I think Rachel is used to the Chiefs and football, where it's one bad effort and you're out (and the Chiefs have had a number of those over the years).

Baseball is much different.

 

I vote for all of the Cardinals Nation to take over Kaufmann and show people how it's really done...

 

Yeah I haven't given up in the Royals yet, and I'm a Brewers fan.

 

no

 

I'll second most of that... "technically" all the Royals had to do was win 1 game during the San Francisco portion of this Series, and that of course has already been accomplished.

 

Uh well I never ever said that we were better and definitely going to win. Cor was PMing me about how clearly the Royals were going to win, and mostly my response was that our starting pitching and hitting were just too inferior. That as long as the Giants played their game to their potential, they were going to win. They're a better version of our team. And now they have a tremendous amount of momentum for a key game tomorrow where they have a real ace and we have a fraud.

Essentially, the Royals can theoretically win the series, but not by their own effort -- only if the Giants screw up.

 

Is this like a pessimism mating ritual or something?

 

Well, the way bochy's been managing these last three games, I wouldn't be too sure that the Giants aren't gonna beat themselves.

If 2010 and 2012 and this years playoff run have taught me anything, it's that in october, there are no guarantees. We won our last two titles beating teams that were better than us.


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Other than Mike Scott, I can't think of a single no-doubt pitcher in postseason history. I feel highly certain that Mike Scott would have won Game 7 in 1986, but he's on a tier all by himself. Koufax got beat, Randy Johnson struggled in the postseason at times, even Curt Schilling and Jack Morris got lit up a time or two. John Tudor was borderline invincible for months in 1985, right up until he wasn't in Game 7 against Kansas City. I watched Mariano Rivera lose to Arizona, and if he can lose in that situation, just about anyone can.

You just never know.

Edit: I guess Orel Hershiser comes close to that level with Scott, but he wasn't that special in earlier postseasons (or later ones).

 

girlfriend loves it when the Giants are winning

 

Oh come on, the Giants had so many things go their way tonight. For example, Finnegan was simply the victim of lucky hitting in the sixth, because every pitch the Giants got a hit on was a good pitch.

 

Yeah see you just asked that they see something "in fairness" with relation to me, KW. Not going to happen. They'd rather pretend that I said a bunch of **** I absolutely never said and pick on me like the clearly superior mature intelligent fans they are. Yawn.

Anyway, of course anything *can* happen in the game tomorrow. But it's better to bank on what is most realistic. And then hope that the Royals realize how much they need to pull themselves together in game six. But I feel they still have a shot at losing game seven in that scenario. The reality is, we are not built to come from behind. So when we get in that situation (and the Giants can put you there) the only chance is a miracle like the wild card. And you can't bank on miracles.

 

You don't need a miracle. Nothing even remotely like one. They have at least even odds of winning this series.

 

It's a best 2-out-of-3 series. The Royals have two games at home.

 

KnightWriter I think you can make a case for...


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Christy Mathewson... yeah, yeah, an insanely different era/format & so forth (and his Giants teams did lose those consecutive Series from 1911-1913), but his 1905 World Series performance is the stuff of ridiculous legend: 3 complete game shutouts, en route to the National League's 1st World Series title.

 

I have only seen one other team do something like what the Giants just did tonight, the other team is the Royals, so I still believe the Royals will win this World Series. Of course Game 5 is going to be tough against Bumgarner, if it were easy then it wouldn't be the World Series.

 

Wow.


wow

There is nothing like World Series baseball. I was there. Easily one of the top ten best days of my life. I have never, ever experienced anything like that.

I never thought today when I woke up that I would be going to a World Series ball game. While I was taking my shower, I did realize I was acting like a total prat yesterday, being super pessimistic about the Giants and everything. I resolved to have a fun day and to stay chipper about the Giants' chances for the rest of the series, even if the rational part of me still didn't believe very much.

So, my friend needed a ride up to San Francisco to turn in a few assignments for a school she's trying to get into. Her car had broken down, so I accepted when she asked me earlier this week if she could have a ride up. I really had nothing better to do on my Saturday afternoon. Then as we were getting off the highway, I looked over to my right and there it was- ATT Park. Right there. It drove me crazy. I couldn't be so close and not at least try to get into the frickin' ball game. I thought we might try to get Standing Room Only tickets and then we might check out the part of the bleachers that's behind the Chevron cars, because the hump of the woody wagon is an obstruction to viewing the game (not when you stand, however). SRO tickets were going for nearly 500 off StubHub though. That option was out.

There's a section of the park where you can view the game for free, standing room, for just three innings. And even when those three innings are over, you can watch from outside a second set of gates. That was our chance. It delivered. We got wristbands for innings 4, 5, and 6, the same innings where the Giants turned it all around in this game.

Picture!



That's Cain right there. I think it was the 4th inning and Belt was up at bat.

****in' amazing day. So happy right now. Obviously, I really, really, really want the Giants to win the World Series, but even if they don't, I'm glad knowing I've got this at least.

I take back all my negativity from yesterday!

 

But the Giants have a major advantage in having a very high likelihood of winning the first of those three games. I just think it's unlikely that this Giants team is going to drop two in a row again this series, so 6 and 7 would be tough to pull off. The miracle we need would be winning tomorrow.

Of course I hope they prove me wrong, but I'm sorry if all my Kansas City sports history leads me to feel it's better to have a realistic or even pessimistic view of your chances because every time I've ever been optimistic about any of our teams they've found spectacularly flashy ways to disappoint (losing a game where they never punted, losing a game where they had a 28 point lead with a quarter and a half to go, etc.)


EDIT: Glad you got to go, Nick. I'd have given anything to go to one of our playoff wins. Who knows if we'll ever be back in my lifetime. Oh and I told you so

 

The best Bumgarner can do is obtain the third victory for the Giants, he can't win the entire series for the Giants by himself because he won't be in play for either Game 6 or 7.

 

For better or worse, this isn't football. I understand the pessimist viewpoint, but I don't think it fits here. The Chiefs have their snakebitten history, as do the Suns here, and if this were those respective sports, I think it would be more realistic (perhaps-- neither of those histories have any bearing on actual games in the present). The Royals have won it all before-- it's not as if it's unprecedented.

Bumgarner is great and all, but he's deep into uncharted waters for himself as a pitcher. He could burn out at any time. John Tudor was untouchable going into Game 7 in 1985, and he was shelled in that game.

 

No, but they didn't need him to win spectacularly tonight, either. They just needed our starting and middle relieving pitching to be bad (which it sometimes is) and for our offense to be stagnant past 3-4 runs (which it often is). We've known all season that the formula for us is to get 3-4 runs and hold our opponents off from there. We were following that and we got within 5 outs in this game of getting ourselves to 789 and having a very good shot of sealing the deal. But we just couldn't do it. And once down we had basically no push to get back in the game. So all it takes to lose one of the last two games is to have one bad inning. The amazing wild card comeback notwithstanding, we simply aren't a team that's built to battle back into a high-scoring game. And I fear the Giants are just too good for us to hold them down for two more games.



EDIT: Josh, the Chiefs have won it all before, too. Not sure what bearing that has on anything. Most of this team wasn't born when the Royals won the WS. And if they were it wouldn't have mattered because unlike fans it's not like they grew up with the history of this team constantly in mind (aside from Alex Gordon). The only thing that matters to this season's team is this season. And I'm just trying to assess what I've seen this season, including the post-season. That's my honest evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of these two teams.

Ultimately, we really screwed ourselves not winning game 1. We were able to pull out one NL rules win, which is nice. But I think we saw tonight that one of the factors was Yost getting lost in the managing intricacies (leaving pitchers in too long, pinch hitting Aoki who has been mediocre instead of Butler who has been fantastic, etc.). I'm not saying it was all managing by any means, but it's clear that when Ned's formula didn't get him to the 7th, he was lost.

 

You did. You were right, I was wrong.


I really hope you get to experience something like this, Rachel, and soon, too.

 

Listen-- the Royals have a fine chance of winning this series. That's about all there is to it. I've been here as a fan, and an observer for a long time. The Royals have what it takes to win two more games.