Letter to the Editor: Recent World Series was nothing spectacular

Buffalo News (New York)
November 13, 2011

Dear Editor,

World Series announcer Joe Buck used such terms as "spectacular" and phrases such as "National Classic at its best." I beg to differ. The Series between St. Louis and Texas was exciting and kept you on the edge of your seat, but nothing beyond that.

From Ron Washington running out of bench players and Tony LaRussa's failing to communicate with his bullpen, poor substituting and sloppy managing continued throughout the series. I also hope that my grandson and his teammates ignored the numerous defensive lapses in the game. The attempted one-handed catches of pop-ups and grounders defied all the defensive rules of baseball. There were 14 errors in the series. The two teams combined for 68 runs and close to 70 walks.

During the past week I was fortunate to able to listen to an audio version of the 1949 World Series between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers. The two staffs combined for only 35 runs and 28 walks.The two defenses combined for only eight errors. Casey Stengel and Burt Shotton did masterful jobs running their teams.

The 1949 series was not spectacular with shifting leads. Instead it featured good sound baseball. This was definitely a series that young fans could learn from.

Jerry Collins
Lancaster