This is going to be a baseball post.
I watched the Twins beat the Yankees 2-0 last night. One of the two runs was a homerun, which I'm so used to it's not even funny. But you know how they scored the other run? It was amazing -- I don't think I saw it happen the entire regular season because I was busy watching the Cubs. So the lead-off guy singles. The next guy up lays down a nice sacrifice bunt on the first base side to advance the runner to second. The next guy loops a single to left and the run scores. I was blown away. It just seemed so routine. The sacrifice was especially routine, as it should be for any Major League baseball player. I pray that the Cubs learn how to bunt so they can score more than half of their runs via something other than the homer next season.
Speaking of scoring runs via something other than the homer, I'm a huge fan of Ichiro Suzuki. I didn't actually see him play more than a game or two all season, I just really like contact hitters that can run -- and man, Ichiro can make contact and run like no one else. Anyway, people don't seem to be giving Ichiro much credit for his record-breaking 262-hit season. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that it took him 160 games to break Sisler's 154 game record. At first glance, that seems a lot more significant than it really should be. People don't remember that the extra games were added because there are more teams in the league. George Sisler broke the record when he only had to play a total of 7 different teams (8 teams per league & no interleague play), in an era when starting pitchers typically went all 9 innings of every game. I doubt he faced more than 30 pitchers the entire season. Ichiro probably faced that many pitchers in a single month. To be able to adjust that often and still gets hits like he did is incredible. Now, I don't want to diminish Sisler's record at all. He batted 0.407 (!!!) that season with a 0.632 slugging percentage, 19 HRs, 122 RBIs, 42 SBs, and only 19 strikeouts!!! He was an absolute joke, as Jim Rome would say.
Wouldn't it be nice if the Cubs had someone like Sisler or Ichiro? I think that's all we need to win it all. Yeah, and a closer too. I think it would just be nice to see the Cubs play some basic, fundamental baseball.
I think that's about enough for now. Why doesn't anyone comment?
Back to work.
I watched the Twins beat the Yankees 2-0 last night. One of the two runs was a homerun, which I'm so used to it's not even funny. But you know how they scored the other run? It was amazing -- I don't think I saw it happen the entire regular season because I was busy watching the Cubs. So the lead-off guy singles. The next guy up lays down a nice sacrifice bunt on the first base side to advance the runner to second. The next guy loops a single to left and the run scores. I was blown away. It just seemed so routine. The sacrifice was especially routine, as it should be for any Major League baseball player. I pray that the Cubs learn how to bunt so they can score more than half of their runs via something other than the homer next season.
Speaking of scoring runs via something other than the homer, I'm a huge fan of Ichiro Suzuki. I didn't actually see him play more than a game or two all season, I just really like contact hitters that can run -- and man, Ichiro can make contact and run like no one else. Anyway, people don't seem to be giving Ichiro much credit for his record-breaking 262-hit season. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that it took him 160 games to break Sisler's 154 game record. At first glance, that seems a lot more significant than it really should be. People don't remember that the extra games were added because there are more teams in the league. George Sisler broke the record when he only had to play a total of 7 different teams (8 teams per league & no interleague play), in an era when starting pitchers typically went all 9 innings of every game. I doubt he faced more than 30 pitchers the entire season. Ichiro probably faced that many pitchers in a single month. To be able to adjust that often and still gets hits like he did is incredible. Now, I don't want to diminish Sisler's record at all. He batted 0.407 (!!!) that season with a 0.632 slugging percentage, 19 HRs, 122 RBIs, 42 SBs, and only 19 strikeouts!!! He was an absolute joke, as Jim Rome would say.
Wouldn't it be nice if the Cubs had someone like Sisler or Ichiro? I think that's all we need to win it all. Yeah, and a closer too. I think it would just be nice to see the Cubs play some basic, fundamental baseball.
I think that's about enough for now. Why doesn't anyone comment?
Back to work.
