Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Monday, November 02, 2009

And That Happened: World Series


Yankees 7, Phillies 4: On the one hand, the double steal by Damon in the 9th doesn't really matter, right? He'd be on second base before the A-Rod hit and still would have scored, even if someone had thought to cover third. On the other hand, Brad Lidge was on the mound, and that guy is something less than grace under pressure. You know he was worked up about that play when he hit Teixeira, and you have to figure he was still thinking about it when he threw the pitch to A-Rod.

But that's boring post-hoc analysis. As it happened, all I could think was "WOW!" I have no horse in this race, but I stood up and shouted at my TV when Damon took off from second, just as amazed at what was happening as I was amazed at how quickly Damon reacted, realizing that there was no one at third and that he had the edge in the footrace. My next thought was "man, they've been playing baseball for more than 150 years, so you'd think everything that has happened could happen, and then something like THIS happens." I'm guessing some guy will dig deep somewhere today and find an account of this happening before, but the fact that he'll have to dig is testament enough to that play.

But maybe it hasn't happened. Think about the perfect storm of weirdness that has to occur for that play to happen: (1) the overshift has to be on with the third baseman covering the play, just, like they had on for Teixeira; (2) someone has to be stealing with an overshift on, which by definition means that someone is attempting a steal when a fierce pull hitting lefty is at the plate, which is usually a low-percentage play; and (3) a defensive brain fart, to the extent the pitcher not covering third on a stolen base -- something which doesn't come up too often -- can be considered a brain fart. If I had to guess, I'd say that someone got a double steal awarded to them on a bad scorer's call at some point, when an error really should have been recorded. My guess is that it happening like Damon did it has never happened before.

Anyway, it's 3-1 now, with Cliff Lee on tap. My Yankees in 6 pick looks reasonably safe right now. Unless things like momentum and statements and dramatic turning points and all of that mean anything, in which case New York takes it tonight.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 6:29am

Quote of the Day: Johnny Damon


In Lupica's column, via CTB reader comeoneman:

"What were you doing going to third?" Damon was asked in the Yankee clubhouse.

Johnny Damon smiled and said, "Trying to keep (Lidge) from throwing a slider."

And in case you've missed the comments in ATH this morning, eagle-eyed and elephant-brained ShysterBall readers recall that Willie Mays and Brandon Phillips both pulled that play off before, stealing against anti-McCovey and anti-Dunn shifts. Please let me know of any others.

Not that it still wasn't totally cool to see it happen live.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 10:18am

My Morning in Exile


Lots of cross-pollination between NBC and THT this morning, as every time I wrote something in one place, someone would tell me something interesting and new about it in the other. Who says that the mainstream media and new media can't get along?

  • Two posts on Damon's steal. One bringing the hyperbole (an ATH regurgitation, really) and one tempering things a bit. Both of these posts were basically co-written by commenters, which puts me in mind of that great T.S. Eliot quote.

  • Robin Yount may have corked his bat. No one will probably care. If he had been found out to be an HGH user, people would freak. Which is weird since neither cork nor HGH does anything to help a dude play baseball better.


  • Michael Weiner holds forth on the great issues of the day.


  • Milton Bradley could be a Ranger again. Someone please let me know if we're getting do-overs on everything else that happened during the winter of 2008-09, because I have a lot of things I need to revisit.


  • So you're telling me there's a chance... *YEAH!*


    • Lots of legal work today, so there's a chance this afternoon will be light going. Must do something about that . . . .
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 10:33am

    Tuesday, November 03, 2009

    And That Happened: World Series


    Phillies 8, Yankees 6: Jimmy Rollins on the win: "We didn't have a choice. It was either go home and watch football and college basketball or extend the season." Somewhere Cole Hamels is whimpering. He really likes college basketball. Other random thoughts:

  • Braves fans have long known -- and lamented -- how awesome Chase Utley is, so it's nice that the rest of the country is getting a chance to see how we feel every time he kicks our butts.


  • The not-so-good Cliff Lee showed up, but lucky for Phillies fans, the really-not-so-good A.J. Burnett did too. Credit the oh-my-god-you-suck Phil Coke with an assist.


  • A three-run lead entering the ninth and the Phillies don't use their closer, Brad Lidge? What? Has something occurred that has caused Charlie Manuel to lose confidence in him? Isn't Lidge automatic? Has anything else odd taken place since I went into that coma in November 2008?


  • I'm assuming it's Pettitte v. Martinez in Game 6, but since Happ hasn't pitched, he could go in Game 6 with Pedro going in a Game 7, thereby (a) bypassing the less-than-motivated Cole Hamels; and (b) setting up the possibility of a legendary final achievement for a legendary pitcher. Really, I couldn't give a rat's patootie about the Phillies, but how awesome would it be to see Pedro Martinez beat the Yankees with some stellar performance in Game 7? I mean, sure, Yankees fans and Cole Hamels would commit suicide, but everyone else would freak the hell out.


  • Finally, regarding that Hamels business, it's never good to have a guy make some unfortunate and distracting comments. Thankfully his teammates are there to pick him up.


    • Today is the last off day before the season is over. Can't decide if that's a good thing (no more waiting around a whole day for baseball) or a bad thing (we're so close to months of waiting around for baseball).
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 4:43am

    From the WTF department


    This video is better without any intro.

    I would love to see one of these specifically geared toward every single team.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 9:30am

    My Morning in Exile


    Things I wrote while realizing that no matter who wins this series, one of the managers is going to get more guff than he probably deserves:

  • Are McCarver and Buck rooting for anyone? Is this a ripoff of Jay's previous post on the subject or just an homage? Do you get more angry comments and click-throughs if you put your post titles in the form of a question?


  • The post which will cause people to come to a baseball blog and talk about how much they hate baseball. It's a dynamic I'll never understand.


  • When Bob Gibson was young he'd walk to the ballpark, uphill, both ways, in a driving blizzard. He'd get paid five bees a start, and he was THANKFUL FOR THE OPPORTUNITY.


  • Bam-Bam!


  • Jamie to the Dodgers: "Get out of my divorce!"


  • Baseball makes noises about maybe kinda sorta wanting to stop the mound meetings. Good luck. I've been trying to stop meetings for 11 years now and I've had no luck.


    • Not that guff is the worst thing a guy can take. Indeed, on the "taking" scale, guff is far preferable to grief, crap and its more colorful permutations. Really, with the exception of "rebop" guff is probably the best thing you can expect to take under the circumstances.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:22am

    The McCourt divorce: messier than you could possibly imagine


    I may dabble, but Josh Fisher is the go-to source for all of your McCourtly goodness. Today, Josh talks about just how much of a clusterf*ck the Dodgers' sale was, and why it will make the McCourt divorce an even bigger hassle than most of us currently realize:

    So, if you're counting at home, the above adds up to $421 million in financing...for a $371 million purchase. That, friends, is a little scary. And there's more. In May 2005, McCourt announced a new, $250 million 25-year note which took out B of A and what remained of the debt to Fox (after the foreclosure on the Boston property). This increased the debt load to $521 million on a $371 million purchase. This financing, known as a private placement, was provided by an unidentified group of institutional investors, such as pension funds and insurance companies. The terms of the loan--5.66% fixed for 25 years--are relatively favorable to McCourt. The collateral for this new loan was reportedly the 300 acres of real estate surrounding Dodger Stadium--not the club itself. Importantly, one of the provisions of the private placement was that control of the Dodgers would not change hands.

    In April 2009, Forbes estimated the value of the franchise (including surrounding land) as $722 million with a debt total a little shy of $420 million. Where does that $420 million come from? We don't know the status of the $75 million debt to major league baseball. My guess is that the McCourts further leveraged the land around Dodger Stadium, bringing the private placement debt to at least $345 million.

    That is just a snippet of an insanely fascinating (at least to people like Josh and me) post about Dodgers, Inc. The upshot of which is that the McCourts don't have nearly as much money as Jamie McCourt's filings would have you believe, and that unwinding all of this is going to be a monster headache. So much so that if I were one of the McCourts, I'd consider some kind fo truce as soon as possible that would keep joint ownership to some degree rather than risk all of the creditors calling in the notes.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:10pm

    Programming Note


    When I started writing ShysterBall in the spring of 2007, the idea was to give myself a place to be where I could escape the stress and unpleasantness of my legal career, if only for the briefest of moments. As time went on, it began to consume more and more of my waking hours and, in all honesty, interfering pretty significantly with that legal career. No, I never dropped the ball on a case, but it has been a struggle. I mean really, how is someone supposed to prepare for an oral argument when Roger Clemens is testifying before Congress? I'd like to say that I eventually managed to find balance with all of this, but that would be a lie. My life hasn't been in balance since at least 2006. Maybe earlier. Something has to be done. So I'm doing it:

    I'm quitting the law. Starting November 30th I will be writing about baseball full time for NBC Sports.com.

    Obviously this wasn't a unilateral decision on my part. NBC has decided that they want me all-in on Circling the Bases, and that's not the kind of thing you have to ask me twice. The people over there have been fantastic to me since I started moonlighting back in April. They've never censored a word I've written. They've never declared a topic off-limits. Their instructions to me when I started were to make some f*cking noise, and they've allowed me to do that non-stop since. When they asked me to do it full time, it was a complete no-brainer. I don't yet know how it's going to all work out -- the enormity of this is just starting to sink in -- but to say I'm excited would be something of an understatement.

    Q: But Craig! Where am I going to go for my daily ATH fix come April?!

    A: Right here. Well, to THT at least, because NBC has been good enough to allow me to keep doing ATH and posting it at The Hardball Times (see above about NBC being totally cool). It likely won't be in ShysterBall, because the ShysterBall name is going to go into mothballs. Right now the smart money is on it appearing as a daily post at THT Live, but we'll give you lots of advanced notice once the good Mr. Studeman and I figure it out. The upshot, though, is that everyone involved realizes just how valuable an outlet and how outstanding the readership and community is at THT, and no one wants to mess with a good thing. Day-to-day blogging will be at NBC, but ATH will continue to appear at The Hardball Times.

    Q: But Craig! How can you subject yourself to the kind of abuse you get from the commenters over there every day?

    A: I've learned a lot in a short period of time. I've also noticed a slight uptick in commenter quality as time has gone on. I credit many of you for that, as I have been seeing a lot of familiar commenting handles migrate over to NBC as the year has progressed. I hope that continues. And I'm sure that it can. None of you are the type who can't handle more baseball in your lives, so I'm sure you can make a point to be good boys and girls and read your THT, and then come over to NBC to see what I'm up to.

    Q: So, like, what does this all mean for you?

    A: I don't know. No shaving. Pants optional. Walking kids to the bus stop. Cheaper coffee. More time to go to the gym. Occasional cushion forts in the living room. I'm sure it's going to be an adjustment process. I'll ask Neyer what he does with his days.

    OK, enough self-indulgent crap, we have almost a month to get all of that in. In the meantime, let me offer some thanks to some people.

  • Thanks Repoz, because without your generous links, no one starts reading ShysterBall in the first place;


  • Thanks Rob, because without your generous links, no one starts reading ShysterBall in anything approaching significant numbers. If I had a dime for every time someone has said "I found this blog via Neyer . . ." well, I'd have a shitload of dimes. Oh, it's also worth noting that I'm not even writing a word about baseball without your inspiration;


  • Thanks Studes for taking the chance on me and making me a part of the THT family. The sketchy, ne'er-do-well cousin of that family to be sure, but a great family all the same. It took a lot to give my ramblings a sheen of respectability, but THT did the job;


  • Thanks Aaron Gleeman and Matthew Pouliot for suggesting me to the NBC brass when you were getting CTB off the ground last spring. Before then, the only thing NBC knew about me came via the copious amount of Markie Post fanmail I've sent in over the years, and the attendant restraining order hearings. It was nice to be able to make a second impression;


  • Thanks Jason, and Ron and Josh and Josh (the other one) and Jay and Sara and Mark and Scott and lar and Mike and Tim and Keith and Joe and every other member of the bloggy neighborhood who has linked to and been linked by ShysterBall, all of which has added immensely to the quality of the proceedings; and finally;


    • Thanks ShysterBall readers of both the commenting and the lurking persuasion. I could bring more bloggy noise than anyone, but it's worthless if there's no one there to read it. I'm not the statcounter obsessive I used to be, but whenever I've lost the will to write, I've checked in to look at the numbers. When I see people who have way better things to do with their lives click and click and click like you've been doing for so damn long, I'm reinvigorated.

    And away we go . . .
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 1:52pm

    Wednesday, November 04, 2009

    Great Moments in Being Vicente Padilla


    Ladies and gentleman, the man on which Joe Torre depended to stave off elimination in the NLCS:

    Dodgers pitcher Vicente Padilla accidentally shot himself in the right leg, the Dodgers confirmed Tuesday, but the wound is believed to be minor.

    Whatever. I couldn't get too mad about that, even if I was a Dodgers fan. What I can't abide, however, is the fact that one of my NBC colleagues stole the Warren Zevon reference I was going to drop. I'm not going to get a chance like that again. At least until some ballplayer loses their head in a war in the Congo.

    I haven't officially signed my NBC deal yet, but rest assured, prior to doing so I will check the fine print to make sure that I have the authority to have Harkins killed if something like this happens again.
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:31am

    My Morning in Exile


    Just want to thank everyone for all the kind words in my little ego thread yesterday. It's humbling to say the least. I feel like Johnny Fever after he told people to go throw garbage on the steps of city hall and they actually, you know, did it. I'll try to get back into my usual snarky-ass ways as the day progresses, but I'll admit: it would be way easier if Bailey Quarters were here to help me get my mojo back like she helped Johnny in that episode. Alas.

  • Whenever I get mad at someone who won't engage me or doesn't care what I think, I fantasize that I have them in the witness box and I'm cross examining them within an inch of their lives. While it isn't anything that extreme in this case, here's me giving Mike Lupica the treatment.


  • My above reference to mojo notwithstanding, I'm pretty sure mojo is a b.s. concept.


  • Who is Manuel going to go to if the Phillies have a lead late? Lidge? Madson? Bedrosian? McGraw?


  • The Yankees aren't so dumb that they'd actually give Johnny Damon more money based on one heads up play, are they?


  • Mattingly may be the heir apparent in L.A. Time will tell whether that role will play out more Prince Williamish or more Czarevich Alexei Nikolaevichish.


  • Chase Utley is not the best second baseman ever. And despite what the commenters may say, I DO sing better than Albert Einstein did. Prove me wrong.


    • BTW: Happy 59th birthday to Markie Post. (Call me).
    Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 11:00am

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