Black’s first playoffwin worth celebrating
In the cramped, crazy, champagnedrenched visitors clubhouse at Wrigley Field in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, I shook Bud Black’s hand and congratulated him on his first playoff win as a bigleague manager.
As reliever Scott Oberg poured cold beer on Black’s head, Black grinned at me and quickly deflected the compliment.
“This isn’t about me, it’s about everybody in this room,” he said. “These guys come to play every day and they are resilient. They prepare as well as any team I’ve even been around. They just go about it the right way, and I’m so proud of them.”
Black has managed 1,687 regularseason games in his career, going 827860. He’s 11 in the playoffs and he was the 2010 National League manager of the year. Those aren’t great numbers, but nearly everyone I talk to in baseball — and not just those of us in the media who like and respect Black — believe that he’s one of the game’s best managers.
Sure, he makes mistakes. I’m still shaking my head at his decision to have Scott Oberg pitch to redhot Dodgers slugger Yasiel Puig in Colorado’s 52 loss in Los Angeles on Sept. 19. But I think Black plays a mean game of baseball chess, and his players respect him and play hard for him.
As a beat writer, you’re not supposed to root for the team you cover. I understand that, but you can’t help but root for some of the people you cover. Black is certainly worthy of my rooting interest.
Hug it out.
Nolan Arenado didn’t expect his infield hug with the Cubs’ Javier Baez to go viral on the internet, but it did.
In case you missed it — and how could you? — the score of Tuesday night’s wildcard playoff game at Wrigley Field was tied 11 with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning with two runners on base. Willson Contreras grounded to Nolan Arena do at third and Arenado turned to tag out Baez, who was running from second to third base.
Then things got weird. Rather than avoiding Arenado’s tag, Baez extended his arms went in for a brohug. Arenado just smiled and patted Baez, rather than attempting to throw for a double play.
Wednesday afternoon at Miller Park, Arenado got a kick out of talking about the play.
“I don’t know what happened,” Arenado said. “He stopped, and knowing Baez, I thought he would make a move and try to trick me, so I went at him hard because I didn’t know what he would do. And then he hugged me and I kinda fell into his arms. It was a little awkward. And then he held me. He’s squirmy, I thought he would do a trick move on me.”
Did Arenado think Baez prevented him from making a possible double play?
“Nah, I wasn’t planning on throwing,” Arenado said. “No need to force that, just get the out and keep the force in play. If I would have known I could have gotten a double play, I would have gone ‘And1’ like in basketball.”
Crazy for Yelich.
Count Arenado as a member of the Christian Yelich for MVP club.
The Brewers’ outfielder won the batting title with a .326 average and smacked 36 home runs to go with 110 RBIs, 118 runs, 22 steals in 26 tries and a 1.000 OPS that led the league by a wide margin. He delivered three hits and drove in a run in Milwaukee’s 31 win over the Cubs in Monday’s National League Central tiebreaker.
“Yelich is a friend of mine and a played some with him,” Arenado said. “I think he was the best player in the National League this year. He’s been unbelievable and you have to give him credit. He’s had an amazing year and he’d get my vote for MVP.”