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Blog*Spot ArchivesContactRichard Ceccarelli Josh Mandir |
Tuesday, June 14, 2005Nats 6, Angels 3If this keeps up, I could seriously get used to interleague games. Arguably the two most intense moments of the season have come against clubs the Angels have played a grand total of three times prior to 2005. About Glovegate:
Of course the starting pitching isn't going to matter if the bullpen doesn't halt it's implosion. No lead is safe at the moment. And say what you want about Cabrera's errors - they hurt big, yes, and the game would have been totally different had he done his job - but Shields let this one slip on his own. Unless he was calling the pitches, I fail to see how the shortstop was responsible for a hit batter and a grooved fastball sent over the wall. Comments:You have to remember that: 1) Robinson used to be the VP of discipline for MLB. 2) Robinson is managing a team who desperately needs to win to bring in fans and a new stadium and he's in the midst of doing so. The job of the manager is to see that his team wins. Pine tar is a foreign substance, therefore against the rules. It's not like Robinson was complaining about jewelry or Donnelly's undershirt or something. What is bush league is Donnelly cheating, no matter how prevelant it is in the league. I'd find it hard to believe you'd call out Scioscia if he did the same thing to Luis Ayala. You linked back to the Erstad/Estrada collision, but you also might consider Piazza's ejection in the Mets series, too. Interleague has been weirdly competitive, and maybe one reason is the participants feel they can get away with stuff they otherwise wouldn't. Bush league? Was he just supposed to let the opposing team's pitcher get an unfair advantage? Guillen didn't rat out Donnelly. The Nats' beat writer says it was the team's advanced video scouts who've noticed it. Check out the Washington Post article for the info -- including a claim that Donnelly may have had sandpaper too. And not to pick nits, but it was a slider Guillen ripped. It wasn't a hanger either. Guillen hit a tough pitch. Joe - I said Donnelly was caught red-handed. There's no disputing that. What's bush league is Robinson going off when Scioscia promised to reciprocate. If the former dean of discipline is so worried about pitchers claiming an unfair advantage, you would think he would embrace the opportunity to clean his own house. It's too bad neither Lackey nor Wash are pitching tonight...they would probably love to start something with Guillen. I think there are more than a few people around MLB that find it easier to pick on a guy who was once a replacement player and to this day is still excluded from the union. (The only one to ever be the winning pitcher in an All-Star game, if I recall correctly.) Even if he IS cheating, as inconsistent as he's been lately, what manager would rather see Sheilds for two more outs than Donnelly anyway? If the situation hadn't gotten out of hand, the Nats wouldn't have gotten so fired up, the Angels would't have gotten rattled, Angels win 3-1, and the whole thing would have backfired on Robinson. If I were Mike I would have checked the pine tar Guillen's bat after the home run. Since maybe half the guys on any given team have it well past the 17" mark anyway, why not. Imagine that scene. Guillen going George Brett times a thousand! That meltdown would eclipse an entire decade of Lou Pinella's finest freakouts! It's only a matter of time before the Nats hit a rough streak, lose a few games, and Guillen turns his seemingly endless supply of anger against his own team. They may be cheering in DC now, but they were cheering in Anaheim this time last year too. |
