Pearly Gates is...Quick ReferenceRecent postsLinksRichard's other blog:Hall Of Fame:
The "Real" Media:
Halosphere:
Minor League Affiliates:
Other Baseball Blogs:
Other Random Crap (in a good way):
Soccer:Archive
Blog*Spot ArchivesContactRichard Ceccarelli Josh Mandir |
Monday, June 06, 2005Maybe he is a real football playerAngels 4, Braves 2. The guys from Braves Beat aren't pleased with Darin Erstad. I say get over it - it was absolutely a clean play. Erstad could have "taken the corner", I suppose, and he could have been tagged out. Estrada had the ball in the glove, and it would have been a darn close play. Erstad decided to leave it beyond doubt. UPDATE: This post from Catbird in the Nosebleed Seats hits the mark exactly. JOSH: I did not see this play live, so I didn't even know about it until reading this post, but I have since seen it on MLB.com. I have to say that Erstad did exactly what needs to be done in that situation. If you are going headfirst in a play at the plate and the catcher is there...you have to go through him in order to knock the ball out and be safe. This is where Vlad screwed up a couple of weeks ago when he hurt his shoulder. He tried going around the catcher on a headfirst slide and had to twist his body around and flop to the ground. Erstad, on the other hand, went right through. This is an important point...it is nearly impossible to dodge a tag on a headfirst slide. If you are going feet first, you always slide wide of the bag and try and hit the plate with your hand as you go by. Going headfirst to avoid the tag is a terrible move. So Erstad's options in this case were to hook slide wide or railroad the catcher. He chose the one that he felt he had a better chance with. Let's hope that Johnny Star is not hurt seriously, but we should applaud Erstad's guts and baseball intelligence. Comments:I'm a big Braves fan. Nothing dirty about the play. I saw a Brave (can't remember if it was Giles or Orr) plow into a plate-blocking catcher much the same way earlier this season. I remember reading several comments on Braves blogs (rightly) celebrating the play. I don't get this "Erstad should have slid" stuff. When I first saw the play on "live TV," I thought Erstad was out, because the throw just beat him and Estrada appeared to put hit mitt to him. Then I saw the replays showing that Estrada hadn't held onto the ball... because Erstad separated him from it... and that's why he scored. I hope Estrada is okay. One of the few bats apart from Betemit playing well lately & a good guy. Understand that some of the griping we Braves fans are engaging in is because we are worried about Estrada and are frustrated by injuries... and we are pretty much hitting like crap right now. (Ever notice the similarities in the names Estrada and Erstad?) Erstad slides and he's out. The ball beat him to the plate by enough that my first thought was simply "dead duck." Unfortunately for Estrada, he either didn't realize how much of the plate he was blocking or just assumed that Erstad would try to slide for the corner of the plate; it looked like he received the ball and was turning and dipping down to apply the tag to a sliding runner. Estrada is 5'11" and was moving towards the ground; Erstad is 6'2" and could not possibly have gotten lower to the ground without doing a somersault. In the video, you can see Erstad's torso is just about parallel to the ground (see the photo of the moment of impact at http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=250606115). There was just no way he was going to hit Estrada any lower than he did. Clean play, case closed. |
