Albert Pujols Cements His Reputation

Posted on October 23, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Albert Pujols watches one of his three monster shots soar into the stands during World Series Game 3, a 16-7 St. Louis romp, in a stadium known for plenty of home runs: well over 200 during the regular season by the Rangers and opposing clubs.

The number-one slugger of the 21st century added three World Series home runs and six runs batted in (RBI) to his astonishing career stats. Only Babe Ruth (two times) and Mr. October. Reggie Jackson, had ever accomplished the feat before. The six RBI ties Yankees stalwart Hideki Matsui (2009). Usually light-hitting Bobby Richardson, in 1960 I (Evander) believe, had a total of 12 Series RBI; though Mr. Richardson, at a personal appearance, reminded about 1964, when he collected an almost-as-amazing 13 hits, that he made the final out of that Series, coincidentally against the Cardinals. Both Ruth home-run feats, incidentally, were versus this same National League St. Louis squad for which Pujols now plays.

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The All-important Game 3

Posted on October 22, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Josh Hamilton's sacrifice fly is big-time hitting for this (to-date) offensively challenged World Series.

I (Evander) have been watching this World Series at a bit of a distance and disadvantage. For Game 2, I was at the year-end (fiscal year begins November 1) board meeting of the foundation I direct when I am not working on Right Off the Bat promotion. During Game 1, I was burning the midnight oil (as John Milton would say) in preparation for the board meeting. Last night, I attended a memorial for the former director of the Deutsches Haus, NYU, a close professional friend for many years. Now I can concentrate on the World Series. (Sorry Toby and Win: I’ll be missing my first World Series party in several years.) Joe Torre always said Game 3 was the key to any seven-game (and perhaps five-game) series. Pay particular attention to this one. Although the Seeger-like question of Where Has All the Pitching Gone? was asked in the respective Pennant series, I might now ask, “Where Has All the Offense Gone?” Josh Hamilton. Albert Pujols. Nelson Cruz. To date, a grand total of eight runners have crossed home plate ahead of any throw home or tag. Weather permitting, the ball tends to fly at The Ballpark (if it still has this name) in Texas. From replays and other highlights, it seems to be the hitters are overanxious, trying to play the ultimate hero and hit what is called the “five-run home run.” (Yes, cricket fans and baseball learners: Such is impossible.) The only surprise is we will not be surprised.

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In Praise of Kumar Sangakkara

Posted on October 22, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook
Kumar Sangakkara

Kumar Sangakkara: Greatness comes easily

Earlier this year, the great Sri Lankan batsman and wicketkeeper, Kumar Sangakkara, led his team to the finals of the cricket World Cup, and he was named the International Cricket Conference’s One-Day International cricketer of the year. He pulled off a brilliant rearguard century to stymie England’s efforts to win the third and final Test of a difficult series. His MCC Spirit of Cricket Lecture at Lord’s bravely attacked the politicization of Sri Lankan cricket selection. Now he has virtually single-handedly saved Sri Lanka from defeat in the first Test match against Pakistan, with a brilliant rearguard double-century.

Sangakkara’s manifest integrity and love of the game seem somewhat old-fashioned virtues in today’s game of high-stakes wins and money-dictated outcomes. His record in all forms of the game is good, but his Test record is among the world’s best. He is still only thirty-three years old. If he continues for another four or five years at the level he’s maintained, he stands to become the greatest Sri Lanka batsmen ever. He may even be that now.

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Well-Couched Questions with Subash Jayaraman

Posted on October 19, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Evander and I had a great time talking cricket and baseball with Subash Jayaraman of The Cricket Couch yesterday. Here’s the page and here’s the talk (mp3)!

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Yankees Universe Parking Fiasco (World Series to Begin)

Posted on October 18, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Put Up a Parking Lot?

Is the big news in New York that the World Series, pitting the St. Louis Cardinals against the Texas Rangers, begins tomorrow? It may be the news of the world, but not in Yankees Universe. Yankees Universe has a messy parking-garage crisis on its hands. A corporation no one ever heard of was formed to provide state-of-the-art, mega-expensive ($35) parking next to the new Yankee Stadium. Now in a desperation move, officials and investors are considering construction of a luxury hotel and/or housing on the site to generate real income and recover funds on bonds that may not be repaid on time (if ever). Now that a Metro-North station serves many suburbanites’ needs with reliable public transit, who needs an insanely priced parking garage? Next to a train station! Nice work, people. Maybe someone thought that stampede to those high-rolling year-round restaurants, like the Hard Rock Cafe, inside Yankee Stadium would generate lots of parking revenue. I (Evander) never felt the slightest need for any new Yankee Stadium to begin with, never mind overpriced parking.

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As Pete Seeger Might Ask, Where Have All the Frontline Pitchers Gone?

Posted on October 17, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Albert Pujols looking for pitching? One of these NL teams will soon be packing their beards for the winter.

I (Evander) am having a difficult time staying involved with this Game 6 between the Cardinals and the home-team Milwaukee Brewers. At this writing, it is the bottom of the seventh inning and the Cardinals lead 11 to 6. The pitching is atrocious. The Brewers have made three errors. Instead of finishing things off, I guess LaRussa will hold Chris Carpenter for a potential Game 7. I just do not feel this is championship-quality play. The final AL game of the year, a 15-5 laugher, also does not seem so funny. Where has all the front-line pitching gone? Where have all the flowers gone?

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Who Is this Guy?

Posted on October 16, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Nelson Cruz, basher of the Texas Rangers

Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers has hit six home runs in the postseason. Who is this guy? He was drafted by the New York Mets. He had a cup of coffee with the Milwaukee Brewers. He has been in Texas ever since, paying big dividends as a second-line star. Cruz is second-line no more. He added to his remarkable totals (six) with another home run in the Rangers’s 15-5 romp over the Detroit Tigers. Texas, in its various incarnations, has yet to win a World Series in fifty years. This will be their second straight trip to The Dance, as they await the winner of the Cardinals-Brewers series in Milwaukee. So-called postseason baseball began less than three months after the human race reached the moon. I (Evander) am not a fan of combining postseason, intraleague statistics with World Series statistics. Bernie Williams of the New York Yankees had amazing postseason stats and success. But for me, Mickey Mantle’s mind-bending eighteen home runs in the World Series cannot be compared, in any form, to post-1969 postseason-stats keeping. Nevertheless, what Cruz accomplished in the Detroit series is remarkable. He caps a difficult, hot, dry season in Texas. Right Off the Bat sends congratulations to Nelson Cruz, and his Rangers of Arlington, for capturing the 2011 American League Pennant.

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Counterintuitive Ball

Posted on October 15, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Hair-raising baseball series indeed

Both series come down to one-of or-two-of-two. The St. Louis Cardinals win one game, on the road in Milwaukee, and they are in the World Series. The Texas Rangers win one game, at home, and they are in the Series. That simple. Or is it? Conventional wisdom dictates that the club with the best pitching goes all the way. The Cardinals, right now, are on that proverbial-Steppenwolf Magic Carpet Ride. Their bullpen, supposedly the weak underbelly (if a cardinal has anything but a weak underbelly) of the club, has been superlative. Ueber-technician and martinet Tony LaRussa gave his starter the hook after only four-and-two-thirds innings in favor of the bullpen, and the formerly maligned Cards’ pen carried the club the rest of the way. Again. The Tigers have the best, fastest gun in the world: Justin Verlander. Though he won his game, barring days off in formerly rain-deprived Texas, we will not see him start another time in this series. (Though one cannot rule out a relief appearance.) The Tigers also have the best AL closer this side of Mariano Rivera: Jose Valverde. Verlander and Valverde. They have not been enough, thus far, to stop Ron Washington’s Rangers. Thinker Paul Ricoeur might characterize both postseason scenarios under a hermeneutics of suspicion.

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The Postseason Aura of Joe DiMaggio

Posted on October 12, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Joltin' Joe, the original Mr. October

The postseason “success ratio” of Joe DiMaggio is part of his aura. In the days when “postseason” meant only one thing, the World Series, and usually the New York Yankees as part of it, DiMaggio owned October. Although his batting statistics do not indicate such, consider this: The Clipper played thirteen seasons in the big leagues, appearing in ten World Series, on the winning team nine times. He anchored arguably some of the strongest, most-dominant teams ever: the 1936-39 Yankees. Reggie Jackson may be Mr. October, and Mickey Mantle may have collected the most home runs in this month; Babe Ruth may have batted .625 one October. But when a player is on the winning side 70 percent of the time, when all the chips are on the table, that’s saying something.

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St. Louis Cardinals Making Noise

Posted on October 11, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Natural, life-affirming logo of the St. Louis Cardinals. Unusually, their road grays feature the same logo.

The Cardinals have tied the Milwaukee Brewers at one game apiece and are heading home to St. Louis. These are tough birds indeed. The probability of being in this position was slim. Although the Cardinals are the hardest-hitting team in the National League, at the beginning of September they were way out of the race. The New York Mets defeated them in an important late-season game. But Tony LaRussa’s men are tenacious. Pitching great Chris Carpenter ought to be making an appearance, by my calculation, for this all-important Game 3. The Cardinals storied franchise has an unusual position in Major League Baseball, second (with 10) to the New York Yankees’s 27 championships, and involved in some of the most memorable World Series ever (1926, 1944, 1964, 1975, 2004). For many years, they (and the old St. Louis Browns of the American League) were the farthermost-western club in the United States. To make things juicier still, it is reported the Cardinals and Brewers hate each other, with all sorts of accusations flying (What else for a Cardinal?) back and forth. This is some kind of series.

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