I was completely exhausted last night after a long day, so I ended up falling asleep when the Rangers were leading the Yankees, figuring I would watch the replay later. Which meant I missed seeing Alex Rodriguez's homer live to tie the game.
And maybe the Yankees could have won if Squawker Jon didn't call me at the end of nine innings to see what I thought about the game so far. I was in dreamland then, and woke up startled. So I eventually made it to the television, only to see the Rangers loading up the bases -- and eventually beating the great Mariano Rivera. What a nightmare! So I blamed Squawker Jon for this terrible twist of fate, of course!
What do you think? Tell us about it!
23 comments:
You can't blame Jon, he was just doing his job! Did you see any of the Mets game last night? I thought for sure the Mets would get taken to the cleaners, facing Jimenez and his 17-2 record (well, 17-3 now). So to beat a tough pitcher like that gives us Mets fans a little something to be proud of, for today anyway. If only the Mets could just get a little momentum and keep it rolling.
This is why we need to remember the greatness of Joe Page, Luis Arroyo, Sparky Lyle and Goose Gossage: While nobody, but nobody, has ever been better at protecting a 9th-inning lead than Mariano Rivera, those guys were all better in other situations, such as tie games and getting more than 3 outs.
In the '77 ALCS, Sparky had to pitch about 5 innings in Game 4. In the '78 Playoff with the Red Sox, the Goose had to come in during the 7th. How many pitchers would the Joes (Torre or Girardi) have used in the same situation? Then again, Don Zimmer would've pulled Mike Torrez after 6 2-hit-shutout innings, but considering Bob Stanley, maybe Bucky Dent would've hit the homer anyway.
Protecting a 9th-inning lead, Mariano Rivera is the Panamanian Superman. Any other situation, and he's Clark Kent -- or, rather, the public perception of Clark, whom they know as a great newspaper reporter, but they don't think he's super.
Still, in such a situation, or any situation, I'd sooner trust Mariano than any Met reliever. Ever. Even the Tugger.
I see the Yankee lead slowly slipping away, the Rays and Red Sox are coming {and I am a life long Yankee fan!!)
Yeah, you're right, Rivera is not such a great closer when there are men on base, most famously illustrated in the 2001 WS, game 7. So when the game is gift-wrapped for him, he "looks" invincible (obviously looks are very deceiving). But when he has to work for the save, he's no more trustworthy than any other average pitcher.
Uncle Mike ..it was a different type of ballgame when those players were pitching. Mo has pitched two or three innings with great success in the past...of course not often because that isn't his job. It's few and far between that he has blown a save or got a loss vs the amount of times he has entered a game. We just remember the times he loses with men on base because it is that RARE. We forget all the times he succeeded.
23...I can't keep calling you Urinal because it grosses me out.
Lucky it doesn't matter what you think of Mo. It's his own peers...the players who think he is the greatest closer of all time in ANY situation. Even other closers bow down to him including the all time save leader Trevor Hoffman. No one has done it so many times in such high pressure situations as Mo has. He's human ...he fails sometimes but it's miniscule compared to his successes. To say he's no more trustworthy than the average pitcher is just ridiculous.
We have no problem keeping Mo...you can keep Frankie ..the man who takes 20 minutes to leave the mound after a save with his celebrations. Win or lose ...Mo does it with class and never makes excuses.
One of the best times I've had at a game was when I was at CitiField and Mo not only got his 500th save on the Mets home turf (there were so many Yankee fans there it was hard to tell it wasn't the Stadium) BUT Frankie also gave him his lst RBI by walking him in...it was GREAT !!! There is only one Mo. As Jeter said ..there will never be another like him either.
Go Yankees 2010 !!
You are right on Uncle!!
Right on, Peggy. You said:
"One of the best times I've had at a game was when I was at CitiField and Mo not only got his 500th save on the Mets home turf (there were so many Yankee fans there it was hard to tell it wasn't the Stadium) BUT Frankie also gave him his lst RBI by walking him in...it was GREAT !!! There is only one Mo. As Jeter said ..there will never be another like him either."
Jon and I were at that game, too (I think that's the one where we met you and reader Jennie!) Besides the greatness of that game, I loved that the Mets sent over the pitching rubber from that game to Mo and the Yanks afterward. Priceless!
And no, I didn't watch the Mets game last night. Are they still playing this year? ;)
Hey Urinal..why don't you tell your CLOSER to stop beating up in-laws!! How dare you even make comments about Mo when your closer has to beat up senior citizens to prove he is a man!!
Hey MONDOAS, why don't you get all the facts before shooting off your mouth? We don't know the whole story yet, so let's wait until we know what happened first, before rushing to judgment.
How about the following: under New York State law, the state can still prosecute, even if the alleged victim (his father-in-law), does not want to press charges!
Well Urinal, it's still looks like your boy is in TROUBLE!!!!! What's going to come out is how much of a Jackass he has been throughout his career and how people should have seen this coming!! Btw, have you ever...EVER..heard anything bad about Mo? NOPE!!!! Frankie couldn't carry Mo's jock!!
My closer wouldn't want to get within a hundred yards of your closer's jock. Wait a minute, does your closer even wear a jock? Or a cup? I thought his type wore pink panties with little bows on them? Friggin' fembot.
At least my closer IS a man.
No, your closer is a boy who hasn't grown up, and is going to have to if he's facing jail time.
Our closer is a man. With 5 rings, and no one -- except maybe Gene Michael and Joe Torre, but not even Derek Jeter -- is more responsible for those rings.
Yeah.....all that.......and $3.50 will get a coffee latte
urinalfresh - I'm curious about something: Are you KM?
UF,
Enough already with the Mariano gay "jokes."
The Emperor,
Nah, UF isn't KM (Kevin.) Speaking of which, I wish Kevin would post again here! Same with NAM, Fred Garvin, and some of our old-time names. And good to see you posting here, Emperor!
I know I'm a little late to the party ...but ...
Hey Emp ...how's it going?
As for "23" ...with those childish comments about Mo you surely can't be taken seriously anymore (not that you were before ..lol). Why would you attack a man who has only shown integrity, respect to other players and class throughout his whole career?
How can you defend a man who is a conditioned athlete under 30 for physically attacking a man over 50 because of some alleged verbal abuse and doing so in front of other teammates families? How can you dare say anything malicious about Mo? I will never understand that logic.
Go Yankees 2010 !!
No, I am not KM.
I'm not defending K-Rod. From what we have heard so far, the facts of the case are still (slowly) being made public, it appears that he was totally wrong in what he did, and so obviously needs to be punished. I will be first in line to say that he should be released, the Mets do not need players with anger management issues. End of story.
As far as your closer goes, it IS true that he has had problems with runners on base. Remember how he fell apart in game 7, 2001 WS? With the wild throw to second base that allowed the runner to advance to third, and then giving up the game-winning hit to Luis Gonzalez? It wasn't the first time, nor the last.
But to listen to morons like Uncle Mike try to make him seem like an invincible superhero is just ludicrous and ignorant.
Let's face it, Mikey's mouth has been just as bad as mine lately, so before you point your fingers at me, you better take your own inventory first.
Freshy, before you criticize the greatest closer who ever lived, maybe your team should MAKE the postseason every once in a while.
Actually, no, because the last time they did, Aaron Heilman gave up a Pennant-losing homer to The Third Best Molina Brother. Who's actually become a superb defensive catcher, but still has a career OPS+ of 81. Better than Al Weis (59) and Bucky Dent (74), but a bit less than the guys who beat Mariano, Luis Gonzalez (118) and Bill Mueller (109). And the former, and possibly also the latter, were almost certainly steroid users.
At any rate, you can say whatever you want about Mariano, true or not, but you'll never erase those 5 rings, one of which happened on your field in Flushing Meadow. And to get that last out, he had to beat Mike Piazza, a mercenary who was making 66 percent more money than Yankee farm system product Mo at the time. Since you're so obsessed with money and "homegrown talent."
Bring some new material next time, because what you've got is so old and smelly the health inspector is going to close you down. Or, should I say, FRESH material.
"23" ...
I don't care about Uncle Mike ..I am addressing you and your posts.
Mo has played in 88 post season
games. His record is 8-1 with 39
saves. He has a 0.74 ERA and 0.77
WHIP. 107 k's vs only 21 walks.
With the exception of a game in '97 against Cleveland and '01 against the Diamondbacks Mo is as close to infaliable as one can be when it comes to the sport of baseball. Mo has played under the highest pressure and amazingly with 2 exceptions out of 88 games has performed to the highest level. Please stop trying to downgrade his performances ...it isn't showing a great sign of intelligence on your part.
The biggest problem I had with you is the following comments you made about Mo...
"My closer wouldn't want to get within a hundred yards of your closer's jock. Wait a minute, does your closer even wear a jock? Or a cup? I thought his type wore pink panties with little bows on them? Friggin' fembot.
At least my closer IS a man."
You consider a man who beats up another person 20 something years older than him "A MAN" yet try to put down a person who is a true man. That's where you lose any credibility you may have had. The whole above statement about Mo just proves my point..it's childish...definitely not that of a man.
I don't think I have to say anymore on the subject ..Mo's stats and his character speaks for him and any person with half a brain would never say differently.
Go Yankees 2010 !!!
Gee, unless I'm mistaken, which I am not, Trevor Hoffman has more career saves, by quite a wide margin I might add. So wouldn't that make him the greatest closer ever? Baseball is a numbers game, and Hoffman's numbers are greater than Rivera's.
You can't count the postseason, because getting to the postseason is more of a reflection of the entire team, rather than one player. And without an extensive postseason resume, Hoffman's numbers become even more impressive, considering that he played on a lot of bad teams (having not been in the postseason that much) and was still able to accumulate more saves than you-know-who.
The difference between Mo and Hoffman is 47 saves - not actually that big a margin since Hoffman has about 2 years on Rivera. Let's not forget that Mo also plays in the AL East, not the often times anemic NL West where 82 wins was enough to be division champ a few years back.
But, alas, UF, you may be on to something: Hoffman's save % is a whopping .003 higher (.926 to .923) although let's check that again at the end of this season.
Cheers!
Thank you Paul...lol...I couldn't have said it better myself (I DEFINITELY couldn't have said it better).
As for Hoffman ...he himself acknowledged that Mo was the greatest closer in an interview at one of the ASG's.
As I said ..."23" ...keep trying. Even a Boston fan like Paul is giving it to you. Again ..your logic doesn't make sense...
Thanks again Paul and "Cheers" to you too...
Go Yankees 2010 !!!
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