GET A WHIFF
TO BORROW from Dickens: It was the best of times, it was a waste of time. But I’m still a fool in love. I think that baseball, my first true love, will suddenly cure itself, its good senses restored as a matter of applied common sense. Thus it was with Pollyanna optimism that this past Saturday would be a great day for the foolish.
In the rarest of modern scheduling, both the Mets and Yankees would play early-afternoon games on TV. That would be followed by a later time zone, lateafternoon game, A’s vs. Astros, on FS1. This was to be a Throwback Saturday.
But fool me 500 times and shame on me.
The three games totaled 66 strikeouts in just 26 ¹/2 innings. With two strikes, batters conspicuously did not shorten up to try to make contact, to put the ball in play. Standing then sitting ducks, poultry in back-to-thedugout motion.
It was a another home run-ornothing drag as per the dictates of latter day baseball. And the “analytics” applied to such strategies continue to escape those who can recognize junk science from a cure, as baseball, like basketball and football, continues to disembowel itself for only rotten reasons.
The next day, Sunday, the Rays and Yanks, in 10 innings, struck out a total of 21 times. There is no wishing it away.
Telecasts, I suspect, have been similarly afflicted by inattentiveness due to same new-old-thing games.
In the first inning of Sunday’s Rays-Yanks, there were two out, none on when Tampa Bay’s Austin Meadows was nailed on the shoulder by Jordan Montgomery’s pitch. Immediately, Michael Kay and John Flaherty cited the bad-to-boiling blood that has recently spiced Yanks vs. Rays.
At that point the YES truck should have been in full live alert mode.
On the next pitch, the half-inning ended with a ground out. Certainly, as the game moved to commercials, YES would focus on Meadows to see if he crossed
Montgomery’s path or if the two exchanged cross words or even glares.
But nope. We saw a waste shot of the Rays’ dugout then a closeup of Montgomery as he neared the Yankees’ dugout. Anticipating better was a waste of time.
Anyway, Monday, in an 8 ¹/2-inning game, the Rays and Rangers struck out 29 times. Among the 51 outs, 29 Ks. And the game included two designated hitters, to prevent pitchers from batting and presumably striking out.
Tuesday, the Indians vs. White Sox totaled 24 strikeouts. All pitchers have become Nolan Ryan. And soon, plenty of good seats still available!