Playoff Baseball: NLCS

I hate the Dodgers. Always have, always will. In fact, if I met the woman of my dreams, and I mean she was perfect, yet her one flaw was that she was a Dodgers fan — I don’t know if it would work out. I loathe that team, have since I was old enough to understand baseball, and as a lifetime Giants fan that will never, ever change. Therefore, it pained me to watch the Dodgers/Phillies game.

Pedro Martinez was flat out dealing in Game 2 of the NLCS as he held his former team, the Dodgers, to a mere two hits in seven innings of scoreless work. He may barely be able to hit 90 mph on the radar gun, but that man has a better understanding of how to pitch than about 95 percent of the men out there. Too bad the bullpen blew his effort in the eighth inning when manager Charlie Manuel called on five different arms to record three outs which they did but only after they allowed three hits, two walks and two runs. I know I bag on Manuel all the time, but really, how couldn’t I? Five pitchers in one inning? Talk about over managing.

Vincente Padilla looked great today holding the Phillies to four hits and one run over his 7.1 innings to help the Dodgers even up the series with the Phillies. Still, I can’t be the only one who found it odd that the TBS announcers kept talking about him like he was the second coming of Don Drysdale. His stuff can certainly allow him to dominate, but come on now.

Anyone else looking forward to the weekend? For some reason it just seemed like this week would never end. Kind of reminds me of a horror movie with Michael Myers of Halloween fame. Come to think of it, it’s time to pull out the Original Halloween, the one from the late 70′s done by John Carpenter, and give it my yearly viewing. If you haven’t see it you must – for my money it’s the best horror film ever made, right up there with Psycho and the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The day after my Stephen Jackson piece, I’m still 100 percent what I wrote in Captain Jack? I Think Not.

I’m already missing daily baseball (I love the playoffs, but only one or two games a day just doesn’t cut it for me). Something about the rhythm of the game just gets to me. The worst part is opening up the paper each day, yes I still walk outside in my slippers into the cold morning air to pick up an actual paper, and not seeing box scores. As a true fan of baseball, is there another way to more closely connect with the game than to pour through copious amounts of box scores? Not only does it take me back to my youth and discussions with my father about who was better than who, it just gives me something to do when I’m eating Wheaties for breakfast. I have to pause while I wipe a tear away.

Playoff Bullpens

I want to thank John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle for pointing out the following facts. Mr. Shea noted that in the playoffs, at least this season, teams have only been as strong as their closers. Through the first round of the playoffs, the stark contrast between the have’s and the have not’s is pretty astounding.

During the regular season, Joe Nathan, Jonathan Papelbon, Huston Street and Ryan Franklin had a save conversion rate of 90 percent as each man recorded at least 35 saves. How did they do in the playoffs? They were dreadful: 0-4, 10.13 ERA, 3.25 WHIP with four blown saves in just eight innings of work. Putrid isn’t a strong enough word. Do in no small part to each man’s failures, they are all sitting at home eating Doritos and drinking Red Bull right now.

How did the four closers on the winning teams do? How about a 100 percent conversion rate on saves with a 0.87 ERA in 10.1 innings.

Pretty easy to say which “position” was the most valuable one in the first round of the playoffs. Makes me long for the days when men were men and they actually pitched a full nine innings.

By Ray Flowers

Captain Jack? I Think Not

Moron. Imbecile. Liar.

Any of these words could be used to describe a plethora of pro athletes, but nowhere is the issue more succinctly summed up than with the case of the Warriors’ Stephen Jackson. In case you aren’t up to speed with the goings on of the NBA here is what has transpired.

2004: Jackson was involved in the infamous Pacers/Pistons brawl that spilled into the seats and involves fans.

2006: He was charged with criminal recklessness for discharging a firearm during an altercation at a strip club.

2007: The Warriors believe they can change the man and acquire him from the Pacers. The Warriors went on to make the playoffs and advance to the second round. Named captain of the club – i.e. “Captain Jack.”

2008: Set a career-high with a 20.7 point per game mark while pulling down 5.1 boards and handing out 6.5 assists in his best all-around season.

In November he signed a 3-year contract extension for $28 million giving him four years at about $35 million when you add in the last year of his previous deal.

2009: Shortly after signing that massive extension he answered a question about the outlook of the Warriors saying, and I’m paraphrasing, that because the team didn’t bring anyone “big” in to help the cause, and because he is all about winning, that he wanted out.

A couple of days ago he has been stripped of his captaincy.

He played a preseason game in which he committed five fouls and got a technical in less than a quarter of action.

He was been suspended and fined $139,000 for conduct detrimental to the team.

He then went on to reiterate his stance that he wants no part of the Warriors even going so far as to say that if the Warriors want to send him home, as long as they keep paying him, he is fine with that.

Being a lifetime Warriors fan I’m hardly surprised at this as somehow the Warriors always seem like the last people on the planet to know that they have a problem. Think of it – they named a guy their captain who has had multiple suspensions, trouble with the law, and one who is as likely to go postal on a ref as is he to hit a game winning shot. In addition, they lavished $28 million dollars on that same guy despite knowing everything that he was about. Therefore, there is no way I’m absolving the Warriors of blame here as what they did wasn’t only ill-informed, it was flat out comical in its profound stupidity.

But I lay this one at the feet of Mr. Jackson. Never met the man, don’t know a thing about him other than what I read in the paper, but this is the height of divaism (if that is even a word). A mere 11 months, less than a calendar year, after telling the Warriors that he was in it to win it leading the club to lavish him with that massive contract, he has bailed on the team. If there was every a more obvious money grab in the history of the world I’d like to see it. The fact that he is trying to spin it now saying things like it’s the teams fault since they didn’t bring other players in to help him win is pathetic. Mr. Jackson, the club hasn’t played a single game this season. Yes the club certainly has shortcomings, no one can dispute that fact, but at the same time the “captain” of the club is supposed to be the leader, not the first guy jumping off ship. What would Captain Bligh think (that was a Mutiny on the Bounty reference for those of you who didn’t pick it up)?

This is just another reason why the average person despises pro athletes, and honestly, I think a lot of people in these times of a massive unemployment, rising healthcare costs and the mortgage crisis are stating to get pretty angry about yet another multi-million dollar diva whining because he didn’t get his way. When a man, and that’s what these athletes are all about in this day and age (treat me with “respect”) tells you to your face that he is your man causing you to lavish him with more money than he could spend in a lifetime, and then at first chance not only bails on you but sticks the knife full on into your back – well you know where the animosity is coming from when the majority of us barely make enough money to provide for our families. Mr. Jackson might want to remember that the next time he complains about being mistreated by someone or trying to make himself out the victim. You aren’t the victim Mr. Jackson, you are the problem.

By Ray Flowers