- too long: FIVE hours ten minutes
- too much dead time featuring Yankee starting catcher Jose Molina getting the plate umpire to call time out on what seemed like every other pitch to confer with a Yankee pitcher on that complicated topic of what the heck to throw
- TERRIBLE weather: freezing cold the entire time and pouring rain for the second half of the game
- stupid managing: Yankee Joe Girardi AGAIN wasting his best relief pitchers in a tie game: Joba Chamberlain retired one batter to end the seventh with bases loaded; Phil Hughes retired two batters in the eighth inning, which Chamberlain should have pitched; Mariano Rivera wasted the day before to "save" a THREE run lead in the ninth even though neither Chamberlain nor Hughes pitched in game one then brought in to retire the last batter in the eighth of game two, then pitching the ninth and tenth (gee, what a surprise that a tie game would go into extra innings; Joe Girardi was certainly surprised or else he's simply dumb).
So what was proved? What was affirmed? Beats me, which is one reason that I was not enthused. Plus, I finally went to bed about 45 minutes after midnight and watched the recorded ending this morning. My reaction during the game was often:
- Get back in the damn box!
- Throw the damn ball!
- Not another meeting!
- You just talked to him!
- What could you possibly be thinking about?
- Get back in the damn box!
- Throw the damn ball!
- Not another meeting!
Ad nauseum!
The weather appeared to be so bad that it was a violation of both the Constitutional prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishment" and the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war and the definition of torture. Edgar Allen Poe could have written about the diabolical dance of dead time between pitches.
Maybe we should have the Red Cross make decisions on playing conditions instead of feeble minded MLB commissioner Bud Selig, the 75 year old boy wonder.
The manager and pitching coach may visit the mound once an inning to speak to a particular pitcher but the catcher apparently may visit as often as he wants. The plate umpire NEVER denies time out to a catcher. Never. And almost never to a batter. The manager may enter the playing field to argue every call except balls and strikes yet MLB will not allow instant replay because it would slow down the game and interrupt its flow. On disputed plays it's much quicker to have an ump, either on the field or off, review the video image precluding the need for the manager to go onto the playing field. Neither football nor basketball allow the head coach to go on the playing area and interrupt play to dispute a call except for the NFL procedure to exercise the limited number of challenges allowed and even then only to throw the red flag.
It's a race to the bottom to decide who has the least common sense:
- fans for showing up
- fans for staying, although about half appeared to have left by the end of the game
- umpires for making no attempt to speed up the game
- players for playing
- players for making no attempt to speed up the game
- managers for making no attempt to speed up the game; could they make more pointless visits and pitching changes?
- MLB, Inc. for not cancelling, starting earlier, not calling the game when it started to pour, etc.
You would think that MLB players would make working conditions a priority when negotiating the collective bargaining agreement.
Why didn't MLB make a roof a requirement in the many new ball parks built in the last twenty years? MLB knew that television contracts were more important to it than anything else and MLB was increasingly catering to the television schedule. So why not take a simple precaution and guaranty the TV networks optimum playing conditions?
Finally, what the heck were the New York Yankees doing with $1.5 billion dollars that they did not include a roof on their new park?
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