Holy shit, yesterday was a ridiculous day to be awesome (unless your name is Felix, but I'm sure he's used to that by now.)
Big congratulations to Ichiro for ongoing greatness, Rocco for persevering awesomeness, and Jose Bautista for unlikely awesomeness. You made a believer out of the most cynical of critics.
50 home runs is an awesome feat. 50 home runs and (assuredly) 100 walks is great, great feat. 50 home runs with 100 walks when only 2 of them are intentional? Very, very interesting.
Daylife like a thief in the night.
Ichiro's a bad, bad man.
ReplyDeleteBAS.
Look at that jamook in the Yankees shirsey, awed by the presence of Rocco.
ReplyDeleteGotta tell ya, being at that Jays game was several different shades of awesome. Sat within shouting distance of Ichiro. Bonus awesomeness: wore my Mariners #51 jersey, and so got interviewed by a Japanese TV crew. Bewildering! Heavens, but they do talk fast, even the translator.
ReplyDeleteBut the awesome kept coming: Bautista, Ichiro... then my 4 year old sweet-talked John Wetteland into tossing her a ball. Wetteland, BTW, appears to be the least mature guy in the M's bullpen. To top it off my girl ran the bases after the game.
Memories are made of this.
@ Drew: The look on that dude's face is PRICELESS. Worked that Yanks/Rays game last night. The Rays are for real, and it was great to see Rocco back in the outfield last night.
ReplyDelete@ AGF: Incredible. Your experience is a PSA that more people need to get out to the ballpark.
Boners all around! I especially love that reaction of the fan in the Rocco pic.
ReplyDelete"But, no ... you're not supposed to catch that! No! Am I going to make it home in time to watch Jersey Shore?"
Per his MLB.com page, that was Baldelli's first defensive highlight since "Baldelli's Sliding Catch" last October.
ReplyDeleteI see you are still pumping out quality material, season is almost done, I am pleasantly surprised with the year overall.
ReplyDeleteI wrote up a piece on Bautista's 2010 and whether it was the greatest offensive season for the Jays all-time?
http://tiny.cc/dpqmo
It's just funny how spectacularly wrong you were about Bautista, Drew. You can act like you were just being cautious but you were talking with some pretty certain language about last September being a fluke and him hitting homers only against crappy pitchers. Repent man repent.
ReplyDeleteBefore I get labeled as a troll let me just say no one could have predicted this season from JB but Drew couldn't divorce himself from the stats and consider that maybe steady AB and adjustments could make a difference.
ReplyDelete"For every inning-eating shitballer there is a green hitter swinging at everything that moves. I think the collection of scum Bautista took deep speaks for itself."
ReplyDelete"What does my ceaseless Bautista Bashing have to do with my earlier rosterbation? Plenty. A optical success in September could influence the decision makers into believing Bautista is valuable piece moving forward. You and I know that just ain't so."
"I don't see Bautista as a legit power bat. I'm pretty quick to dismiss his late season power surge. He struggled all year, only showing a decent bat when the rosters expanded."
There was much snarkier stuff elsewhere but I can't find it
You're right, I was pretty much dead wrong. I wrote a post earlier this summer where I said Uncle and gave myself over to the Bautista way.
ReplyDeleteIt has everything to do with track record and sustained success. As Jose demonstrated this adjustment works after 200, 300, 400 and 500 plate appearences - I didn't have much choice.
In a way, in this instance especially, I'm glad to be wrong. It's fun to be as spectacularly wrong in the face of what seemed like pretty sound evidence. But that's the fun part, sometimes you just don't know.
Drew, everybody was wrong about Bautista, but I think it's safe to say your concerns about his style/approach will eventually catch up to him unless his .350+ ISO is here to stay!?
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is he had a great September and people discounted it; then he tore it up out of the gates this year, and people said he'd cool off in the second half; but in the second half, and this is the cool/sick/unbelievable part, his triple slash is .309/.421/.757. Yowzers!
ReplyDeleteDrew's right: one of the great things about sports is that it has the ability to surprise us sometimes. Even as stats and analysis have made the game easier to understand, the presence of human beings in it will always allow for something we didn't expect.
ReplyDeleteI was firmly in the skeptics camp for Bautista as well, but I'm delighted to have been wrong this year, and hope he can keep it up. Sometimes, it's okay to enjoy the game, and not worry so much about being right.
Should the Jays target Prince in the offseason? I wrote a piece on that today if anybody is interested.
ReplyDeletehttp://tiny.cc/4638o180hg