Mrs & I watched some just for love of the game, no emotional stake in the teams.
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Originally Posted by Ret10Echo
The Astros representing the American League while I still think of them as an NL team. Does that make the purist disregard them?
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Agree; found myself forgetting that they were made to jump ship from playing baseball to that other game. Still think of them as part of the NL Central but I'm of a certain vintage, so...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ret10Echo
The Nationals from the DC area as a transplant NL team that maybe has only regional/sub-regional interest.
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As well as they played (and Rendon put on a complete-player clinic), I could not root for a team from Mordor on the Potomac.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ret10Echo
Otherwise just generally happy that Bryce Harper watched it from his basement.
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Yup. The only thing that would've been better is if John Smoltz would man-up and put a shock collar on Joe Buck who talks more than a Ginsu knife commercial, hence the reason for @#somebodyPLEASEducttapeJoeBucksmouth.com, as well as @#JoeBuckIsTheReasonTVRemotesHaveMuteButtons.com
Agree with Airbornelawyer: Quality of the plate umpiring often left much to be desired. Also, there are too many things they could still do that would improve the "pace" of the game that are tolerated that shouldn't be. My 2 curmudgeonly examples:
- Batters who, between EACH PITCH, feel the need to go through their personal toilet routine before they step back into the batter's box. My solution:
UMPIRE: "Best get in here son, because this isn't a time-out & that guy out there has my permission to throw the ball, and if he throws it while you're out there tucking in your jewelry, well..."
- Pitchers (and catchers) these days who have to have a new ball whenever it collects too many dust particles in mid-air. My solution:
UMPIRE (tossing the ball back to the mound): "This is the ball I gave you son and that's the one you're going to use. I'll decide when you need a new one."
Harumph!
The Cubs are going to find out next year that "lovable Grandpa Rossy" (David Ross) as a manager is a very intense & focused guy who will brook no sloth or less-than-best effort. It will be interesting during spring training to see whose rucks end up in the hall.