Saturday, July 1, 2017

The " Bobble Out."

After the injury to Fowler, I vowed never to watch another yankee game until he returned, and at 100%.

The sad truth is, speed was his game and he will never have that speed again.

The guy who was never thrown out when he had a chance to steal second, might now be like a fully loaded beer truck, firing out from a stop light, on a steep incline in the Rocky Mountains.  Naturally, I hope to be humiliated when I am reminded of this statement.  I saw what happened to Mantle who, at least, still had power.

But that is the likely tragedy of Fowler's injury.  A Rickey Henderson level threat, and career, may just not ever happen.  Slade Heathcott comes to mind, albeit for slightly different reasons.  And it makes me sick.

As many of you know, all of this horror ( including the reason Fowler was no longer at Scranton), like an Agatha Christie novel, can be traced back to Greg Bird's original lie.  The added irony of Chris Carter's return, the ghostly aspect of it, caused me to disavow myself and turn on Houston TV.

The return of Chris Carter was like turning back a clock.  It proves that periods of time, in his case five days ( I think), can be made, " not to have existed."  He is what remains from Greg Bird's deception, and he cannot be made to disappear.  It is classic "Twilight Zone," material.  He left, he returned, and nothing changed.  Everything evaporated into the ether.

Chris Carter was a spotlight player last night.  A man whose talent departed some number of years ago, still functions as a major league Yankee.  He will always strike out at key moments.  But he drove in runs yesterday and scored from second on a single.

My favorite play from him last night, however, and the inspiration for this essay, was his critical "bobble out,"  which got the Yankees and Pineda ( an unsuspecting participant ) out of a dangerous situation.  There were baserunners everywhere, the crowd was buzzing, and Pineda had wrangled two outs, but was clearly on the edge of losing it.

After about a 14 pitch at bat, Pineda induces a routine, but relatively slow ground ball to first.  Carter charges it while Pineda, rightly, sprints from the mound toward first in the event Carter can't get there before the runner.  Carter bobbles the ball forward, a sure run-scoring error in the making, but the ball pops straight into the sprinting Pineda's glove.

With a balletic grace not before seen from this pitcher, Pineda takes the bobbled grounder and touches the bag, not with his foot, but with his glove.  A major " bend and reach" move.

It was a thing a beauty.  A play to be remembered.  It never happened before.

Not during the five days which never existed.

And the impact on us is, "We are all five days younger than we were when we woke up yesterday."

You can't predict baseball.

15 comments:

  1. Some humble suggestions for The Master re Clint Frazier:

    "It is high, it is far, is it out? Well, do ya feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya? Clint does!"


    "Hang that one high and far! Clint Frazier has gone yard!"

    "Clint earned himself a fistful of dollar with that one!"

    "A good swing, a bad pitch, and Clint has done some ugly damage to the Red Sox!"

    "Clint hit that one up where only eagles dare!"

    "Clint Frazier painted the Astros' wagon with that one! Where is it headin', I ain't certain, but it is on its way!"

    "Play Misty for the Mets! That ball is gone!"

    "Clint hit that ball with magnum force!"

    "And there's a thunderbolt from Clint, who will be light footing it around the bases!"

    "Clint lays down the Eiger Sanction on the Tigers!"

    "Clint hit that ball every which way but loose!"

    "And Clint makes a sudden impact on this game!"

    "That home run by Clint is un-forgiven by Sox fans!"

    "And Clint hits that ball out of Fenway and all the way to the Mystic River!"

    "Clint having NO trouble with THAT curve!"

    "And that's a Gran Torino from Clint, as everybody will come around to score!"

    "Clint is the Yankees' million-dollar baby!"

    And finally:

    "There's a letter TO Iwo Jima from Clint!"

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  2. Very impressive display of film-lore, Horace, Old Boy - - but you forgot to work in the empty-chair routine... LB (No J)

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  3. Over the wall goes Frazier....over the wall goes Frazier!!!!

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  4. I vote for 'sudden impact'.

    Or a riff on ranger -- Downtown goes Frazier.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. AROUND GOES FRAZIER!
    AROUND GOES FRAZIER!

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  7. Did anyone catch John's call? ANONYMOUS is that it?

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  8. It was "Downtown goes Frazier!" According to Meredith marokovits

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  9. That's perfect. I hope he does a Howard Cossell impression when he does it. Anyways, Betances is a bag of shit. The dark lord of Cheapsville Randy Levine needs to be summoned to light a fire under his ass again.

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  10. Betances is pathetic. Hasn't thrown a strike in 3 weeks, can't hold runners to save his life. Altuve basically walked from 1st to 3rd. Just play Mariano had Enter Sandman, Betances has Yakety Sax.

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  11. And Frazier's good deeds have been wiped out by the biggest piece of overrated shit to be allowed to wear pinstripes in my lifetime: Betances. Why the fuck is his constant presence not trashed on this site, when players like Gardner and even Headley and Ellsbury are written off over and over and over again? At least you can't accuse them of not trying. Betances seems to have the IQ of a cabbage - has no one noticed that his repertoire of facial expressions is limited to one of total ineptitude?

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  12. GUYS, THIS WAS ANOTHER ABSOLUTE CRUSHER.
    3 RUN LEAD WITH OUR 2 BIG HORSES READY.
    NOBODY COULD THROW A STRIKE, OR HOLD A RUNNER ON.
    ALL THE MAGIC KARMA FROM FRAZIER'S BIG DEBUT, RUINED.
    WE HAD THE SERIES WIN IN THE BAG.
    NOW WE MAY LOSE ANOTHER SERIES.
    RED SOX WON.
    WE LOST.
    NATS LOST.
    METS WON.
    SUICIDAL THOUGHTS.
    I BETTER GO FOR A WALK.
    CRUSHED.
    CRUSHED.

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  13. I agree Anonymous. The guy is such a pain in the ass. If he isn't melting down, he's putting two guys on before striking out the side. Give me three broken bat ground balls to the second baseman any day over that dip shit. And holding runners has been a problem of his for years now. He knows it, everyone on the team knows it, everyone in the league knows it. After so many years it's just plain selfish of him to not make any effort to get better. Hey cocksucker, four of the easiest stolen bases ever are why you just lost the game. Well that and his inability to throw strikes.

    You know, it's become a tradition around here where around August we start riding Joe for overusing Betances and running him into the ground. I never thought I'd say this, but Joe never ruined Betances. It's clear he just sucks when the situation matters. We've never really noticed this this because he's never made the playoffs. But imagine the shit he'd pull if he ever pitched in October. Mariano in 2001 was not ideal, but Betances would have walked three guys and hit two more. And it's really not a good look when people on twitter are saying "Randy Levine was right." Those are curse words, they will bring about a terrible cataclysm. Yet people were muttering/typing them all over the place because dare I say, they're true.

    Also it appears my brain pulled a Betances in that last post of mine.

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    ReplyDelete

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