Philadelphia vs Houston - World Series thread
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This would have just been your typical “team down 0-2 gets back in it at home’ game if Houston hadn’t blown Game 1. Now they are in a dog fight of a series.
I mean, Dombrowski took over a team that had Hoskins, Bohm, Stott, Nola, Ranger Suarez, Seranthony Dominguez in the pipe, and Bryce Harper, Realmuto and Zach Wheeler already on it.
He left the Sox with not nearly that much, and Schwarber wasn't going to make them a winner this year or next. Dombrowski is a HoF GM, for sure, but there is a cost to it, and I don't think he was the right guy to rebuild the Sox. The jury is out on Bloom, but I don't think they are worse off today than they would be if Dombrowski had stayed.
McCarver and Smoltz are similar in conveying their words with an aura of self confidence and experience but the substance of what they say is totally inane. If you could read a print out of their words in real time, what they say adds next to no value and is often just wrong.
Every time I pine for McCarver, an angelic Deion Sanders pops up on my shoulder and threatens to douse me with ice.
He left the Sox with Betts, Devers, Bogaerts, Sale, Benintendi, Eovaldi, JD, Rodriguez, Bello, Casas, etc.
I get the point, though. But the Sox season that got DD fired was derailed because their three best pitchers got hurt (and they still won 84 games, or two less than this years Phils). I think he kind of got unfairly maligned when that happened. But seems like he’s probably ok with how things worked out.
Wonder what happens in an alternate universe where the Sox keep DD and covid never happens.
I don't particularly care about in game analysis. Very few are good at it. I'm fine with the generic nonsense. My problem with Smoltz he rambles on and on and it is usually about the most boring stuff. Baseball games are long and sometimes not much happens, but Smoltz just never stops talking.
All these analysts sound the same to me. The one guy sounds a lot like Jim Kaat, even though I know it’s not him.
Javier and HOU will be in the same position El Duque and the 1998 Yankees were in in the ALCS against CLE. Both teams had by far the best record in their league, swept their other two series that year, both were down 2-1 to a team much worse than them in the regular season with a hot, scary lineup and two more road games next. I think often non-Yankee fans don't get why Yankee fans loved El Duque so much, and his performance in that game 4 is a nice chunk of that, seven scoreless, an easy win to tie the series at 2. NY did not lose again that postseason, first of seven straight, finishing with an 11-2 postseason (HOU currently at 8-2).
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE199810100.shtml
Javier will get his shot at an El Duque game for HOU tomorrow...
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE199810100.shtml
Javier will get his shot at an El Duque game for HOU tomorrow...
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Dusty gave the high-leverage guys for PHI another night off with his mismanging of McCullers. Guy just can't manage a short series.
You can't argue he seems to have a lot of value in the postseason, being able to keep that HR rate up. I couldn't believe he hit that ball 443' tonight despite not being a center cut pitch.
Would have fit in fine with the 2020s Red Sox if they got rid of JDM and/or Dalbec, easier said than done.
And I don’t think anyone thought that JDM would fall off a cliff (offensively) as bad as he did this season.
I didn't have the sound on for most of the game but Smoltz 100% called Harper's HR in the first inning. If you listened to what he said then watched the very first pitch, he called it exactly and Harper crushed it.
Some photos in here showing he may have been tipping:
Was Lance McCullers Jr. Tipping His Pitches As He Served Up a World Series Record Five Homers In Game 3? Sure Looks Like He Was | Barstool Sports
In the 80s and early 90s, McCarver was actually insightful and humerous. (I wouldn't go so far as to say "funny.") He just stayed a little too long.
Dusty's career modus operandi (leave the pitcher in too long).
I don't have a dog in this hunt, but I was in the "win it for Dusty" group until he left Verlander in too long in game 1. Other blunders too. Now I'm all Phillies.
I don't have a dog in this hunt, but I was in the "win it for Dusty" group until he left Verlander in too long in game 1. Other blunders too. Now I'm all Phillies.
I moved to the Philly area in 71. It was a very good baseball town not just a Phillies town during the Veterans Stadium days as much as I despised those artificial turf stadiums. I think because of the popularity of football and the eagles always being no.1, it 's not as good a baseball town. I think a decent amount of fans have become bandwagon Phillies fans. Many people I talk to have said I don't really like baseball but "Let's go Phillies". I was shocked but I shouldn't have been in 2018 when the Sox were playing the Stros in game 2 of the ALCS and the Pats were playing the Chiefs on Sunday Night Football. In the Boston market the Pats game got higher Nielsen Ratings. Even in Red Sox Nation football because of the success of Brady and the popularity of football, has become no.1 its seems. That really made me sad when I heard that about the ratings.
Rumor has it the Phillies will be wearing the powder blue throwbacks for Game 5 tomorrow. Would not hate the Astros matching with their own throwbacks.
I never liked those 1970's and 80's uniforms. I'm a traditionalist I guess. I was very disappointed the Celtics wore those ugly Boston uniforms opening night. Yecch! I know it's all about selling and money but Red must be rolling in his grave.
You know there is a backstory to the booing Santa Claus at Franklin Field in December of 68. Most of the fans at that Eagles Game wanted the Eagles to lose so they could get the No.1 draft pick by the name of.........Orenthal James Simpson. Yes O.J. The Eagles wound up winning the game. During the game there was a guy dressed as Santa Claus walking threw the stands. He was drunk and nasty, and that's why he was booed. They never threw snowballs at him or any other Santa Claus. I think that's an urban legend I believe but I could be wrong.
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There is some urban legend here, but it’s not the snowball part.
“Santa” was a fill-in because the normal guy didn’t show. (A foot of snow made him think better if it.) They got a 20 year old kid from the stands (not a drunk, nasty older man) who actually came to the game in a Santa costume for reasons known only to him. The Eagles asked if he would be the “halftime Santa” and he said yes. And when he came on to the field, he was absolutely pelted with snowballs.
https://www.thedp.com/article/2020/12/penn-football-franklin-field-eagles-santa
The rest of the details of your story are on the mark.
Wow, thanks for clearing that up. It was Glen Macnow of 94 WIP and former Phiadelphia Inquirer writer, that told the spin story about the booing Santa Claus because he was drunk. I read 2 of his books. He may have said that story in one of his books but I heard him tell that myth story on the radio. You should e-mail him the article.
Not in the 70s when they were made of polyester, had no buttons, and Greg Luzinski had to be shrink-wrapped into them.
100%. That combo makes me super-nostalgic for the late-70s, early-80s when I got into collecting baseball cards. I don't own hats from any teams other than Boston teams and the Razorbacks, but I've been tempted many times by the fitted 47 Brand hats of other teams, like that burgundy Phillies combo, the Expos multi-colored hat, and numerous minor league teams.
