Friday, October 30, 2009

Quotes From Last Night: Game 2 Edition

Presented without comment. Please react in the comments as you see fit:
Jerry Davis (in reference to Brian Gorman's call on Ryan Howard's play in the 7th): "The objective is to get it right, we asked each other what we had seen and the replay confirmed we got it right"


Ryan Howard: “Did I catch it? Well, they called him out. [winks]”


Dave Cameron: The first two Jeter bunt attempts will be criticized by members of the statistical community as part of the reflexive don’t-bunt-ever strategy that has gained too much popularity, but they were the right play. The two-strike bunt attempt really was a bad idea (the additional cost of a foul turning into an out reduces the odds enough to make swinging away more likely to produce a single run, which was the original goal), but the first two stabs at it, Jeter was making the right play.


Jimmy Rollins (via The Fightins): "I was expecting some of that [Philadelphia rowdiness] here, but it was very tame and civilized, really. "You only had one big cheer, and that was on home runs."

Rollins was asked if this feels "more like a World Series" than last year's Series with Tampa Bay.

"When we get to Philly, it will," he said. Because the atmosphere will be so different? "Exactly."


Ken Rosenthal: Is it too late to reopen the old Yankee Stadium one more time?

Pedro Martinez was in the house Thursday night — Pedro Martinez, the old Boston devil. The crowd of 50,181 mustered a few spontaneous, "Who's your daddy?" chants. But more often than not, the fans needed a prompt from the stadium organ to get going.


Bob Raissman: Wonder how they felt about Fox's Tim McCarver and Joe Buck basically saying the joint had all the audio ambiance of a morgue. The voices were not talking about the building's acoustics. During Game 2 of World Series Thursday night, they were talking about Yankee fans (at least the ones who can still afford a ticket) who checked their mouths at the door.


John Gonzalez, Philly Inquirer: Scariest looking guy in the entire park, though, was A.J. Burnett. When did he remember how to pitch?

I got a text from my buddy Fearce before the eighth inning that pretty much summed up what I was thinking: "I don't know what to do when I can't really complain about bad calls or the announcers hating Philly. Feels weird."


Charlie Manuel: "We can hit Rivera. We've proved that. He's good. He's one of the best closers in baseball, if not the best. He's very good. But I've seen our team handle good pitching, and we're definitely capable of scoring runs late in the game."


Pedro Martinez
(via The 700 Level): "I didn't feel strong. I've been under the weather the last couple of days. That's not an excuse. I felt good enough to make pitches and that's what I told them and they trusted me. But I was going to take this start. When I chose this team it was to pitch in the World Series. I'm extremely happy to have had the opportunity."

12 comments:

  1. Agree on the comments about the crowd - seemed VERY subdued and quiet; VERY unlike a World Series atmosphere. I never really considered Yankee fans as particularly raucus and energetic ANYWAY, but this is still clearly a cut below the norm.

    Also, the umps blew a call? SHOCKING.

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  2. It's hard to tell from home but the crowd did seem pretty tame. My living room had six people in it and we were eerily silent at times as well. Being behind in the series makes it tough to get all rowdy and pumped up. The Phillies also struck first while always takes the crowd out of it to some extent.

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  3. It's not just that they got two calls wrong, Smarty, it's that they didn't admit it the one that the opposing player basically admitted was incorrect.

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  4. Steve, still sounds like nearly every blown call from nearly every playoff game in 2009. Maybe it's cuz my team is out of it, but I've just been expecting it every game. It's like status quo at this point.

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  5. Smarty - You're right, them admitting blown calls is a relatively new phenomenon, but I think it was pretty disingenuous for them pretend like the review exonerated them.

    Say it was inconclusive, but don't say that it confirmed you were right. That's bullshit.

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  6. Love Pedro's non-excuse excuse. It was also funny how Manuel asked him if he was okay to go back out as if he was going to say anything else. It's Pedro, he'll pitch until his arm falls off if you don't give him the hook!

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  7. Regarding the crowd, when watching on TV, they've seemed rather tame through the whole postseason. Eventually, as I almost always do, I switched to the radio feed with the TV on mute and they seemed MUCH louder. I don't know if it's just the way the crowd is miced for TV or not, but that stopped being a complaint of mine once I heard the disparity.

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  8. I don't know if anyone else noticed, but when Matsui hit is HR, the stairs to the left of where it land right down near the wall, a guy threw his entire beer into the air and it appeared to not be an accident, so there was at least one rowdy fan there.

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  9. I did catch that. It reminded me of the '95 and '96 post-seasons, you could see beers flying in the stands after every big hit - particularly the Mattingly HR in '95 ALDS.

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  10. Oh, and one other thing.

    Having lived in Philly for eight years now and having gone to a number of games at CBP, all I can say is the fans there never made a sound until the final regular season game of 2007 (the day they won and the Mets lost).

    I used to bring friends and family of mine to Yankee Stadium and they were blown away by the atmosphere of just a regular old game against the White Sox. Much greater than anything they could muster in Philly.

    Obviously the new stadium is different and attracts a different demographic of sorts and the Phillies have found a voice with their new success, but all the mud fired from the Phil's players are really nothing more than to rile up the papers and the fans. Rollins lives for it and I think the Philadelphia fans do too. I wouldn't read too much into it and I definitely wouldn't let it get to you.

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  11. Jimmy, I think it varies by network and stadium as well. When the Yankees are on the road, the balance between the announcers and crowd usually seems off, like the crowd is too quiet. FWIW, the noise sounds louder to me on MLB.tv than on my regular TV too.

    I think the WS crowd has been quieter than the previous two series but that's also because the team gave them little to cheer about in Game 1 and not a while lot more in Game 2. It's not just the price of the tickets - as some have implied - it's the dynamic of the games as well.

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  12. The post-Mattingly beer throw from 1995 is still one of my favorite Yankee memories of all time. I mean, how did that much liquid come from one cup? Still classic.

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