2013 MLB Season
- Thread starter classical_hero
- Start date
El Justo
Deity
they'll find someone, like they always do !
GoodEnoughForMe
n.m.s.s.
The Scher thing. 1 down, 10 to go.
Lambert Simnel
One across
Oh man. Back to listening to post-season baseball on the radio. Not again. Listening to McCutchen's final AB tonight must have taken years off me.
Matheny has serious chops for starting Wacha in a must-win game, and both reliever and closer are within a year of him. My god, that would have looked stupid after a 15-2 loss. :d
PS Funny to look at the stats and articles talking about what a post-season stud Beltran is. I accept the reality, but I still have just the image of him standing and watching Wainwright's curve 7 years ago...
Matheny has serious chops for starting Wacha in a must-win game, and both reliever and closer are within a year of him. My god, that would have looked stupid after a 15-2 loss. :d
PS Funny to look at the stats and articles talking about what a post-season stud Beltran is. I accept the reality, but I still have just the image of him standing and watching Wainwright's curve 7 years ago...
Darkness
Shadow creature
Wacha was awesome! His fastball was just blowing by the Pirates and the curveball seemed to confuse them every time. Great stuff.
It was very good to see Matt Holliday have some success at the plate. 2-for-12 in the first three games is just not enough from your number 3 hitter...
It was very good to see Matt Holliday have some success at the plate. 2-for-12 in the first three games is just not enough from your number 3 hitter...
Dammit, I was really hoping Boston was going to just snuff out the Rays without slowing down. A game-winning homer on Uehara symbolically removes the symbolic aura of invincibility the Sox have had lately.
El Justo
Deity
cards are a gritty bunch, for sure.
and isn't it lovely to see the braves go one and done again ?
and isn't it lovely to see the braves go one and done again ?
El Justo
Deity
wow. sucks to be them 
.
KMRblue1027
The Crown!
A's need to win this thing.
Formaldehyde
Both Fair And Balanced
What a shame to put a dent in their invincibility no matter how symbolic. But I thought TB blew it when the finisher couldn't even get the ball over the plate.
At least Tampa Bay sold out tiny Tropicana Field for a welcome change while showing why they made the playoffs as the wild card, so it wasn't completely mortifying.
As painful as it was to watch a replacement catcher hit a home run on arguably the best closer of 2013, the Sox had too many costly miscues in a brutal 8th to let the Rays come back. If the Sox had wound up winning they would have stole that one. Not that I would have had a problem putting the Rays and their non-existent fanbase to bed but whatever.
KMRblue1027
The Crown!
IIRC the Rays are actually 3rd in TV viewers. It's stretching it to say they have no fans.
How many of those TV viewers are NY and BOS fans?
It is a playoff team with exciting players. They have been really good for the past 5 years or so after a long time being really bad, and yet this year they had their worst attendance since 2007. Oh hey look they show up with their stupid cow bells in their first playoff home game, surprise! It's sad.
It is a playoff team with exciting players. They have been really good for the past 5 years or so after a long time being really bad, and yet this year they had their worst attendance since 2007. Oh hey look they show up with their stupid cow bells in their first playoff home game, surprise! It's sad.
KMRblue1027
The Crown!
MLB TV rating are tracked locally, what NY or NE resident would move to St. Pete? Honestly you're just coming off as an entitled ass right now. It's easy to fill a pathetically small outdated stadium like Fenway, while being located in one of the wealthiest areas of the country. Also unlike the Marlins who deserve no sympathy for their situation, the Rays got screwed over financially. Besides you don't seem to be going off on Downtown right now when Cleavland is dead last in % based attendance, or Oakland for that matter. Why exactly are you so angry about with Rays fans?
During the regular season you can hear louder cheers for the Sox or the Yankees at that stadium than for the home team. There are LOTS of North east transplants in Florida. I am actually more saddened at MLB for even letting this travesty occur in the first place, while simultaneously lobbying to take Baseball away from a great Baseball towns like Minneapolis. I also direct my sadness at the Rays owners. The fans who don't show up and don't care come last and I don't totally blame them to be honest. I just don't take them very seriously.
Rays stadium was a big mistake, same with the Marlins stadium. MLB loves to have the public pay for these stadiums and then 10, 15, 20 years later when no one comes say "oops looks like we need more money to build another one or we will leave." Then you also have the problem that in the interim other richer teams subsidize them (the Rays got $35 mil in 2008--their payroll was around $43 million) which perversely incentivizes owners to suck so that they can basically have their team payroll funded by MLB's equivalent of welfare. So actually as a fan of a well funded team with a well located stadium that people want to go to (like Fenway, AT&T, etc.) yes, yes I do have a reason to have disdain for sucky owners like the Rays and the Marlins.
Don't worry, I similarly express my surprise when, for example, I can go to Oakland in 2003 and buy tickets for a Game 5 against the Sox at the gate. But these places have a history, they actually have good fans who are loyal, they are great baseball towns. No doubt about it a certain part of my loathing is directed at the fact that Florida is just not a baseball place and that the primary motivation to have these teams exist is greedy owners who want to suckle at the MLB revenue teet. I mean the Trop was built before they even knew they would ever have a team there.
Rays stadium was a big mistake, same with the Marlins stadium. MLB loves to have the public pay for these stadiums and then 10, 15, 20 years later when no one comes say "oops looks like we need more money to build another one or we will leave." Then you also have the problem that in the interim other richer teams subsidize them (the Rays got $35 mil in 2008--their payroll was around $43 million) which perversely incentivizes owners to suck so that they can basically have their team payroll funded by MLB's equivalent of welfare. So actually as a fan of a well funded team with a well located stadium that people want to go to (like Fenway, AT&T, etc.) yes, yes I do have a reason to have disdain for sucky owners like the Rays and the Marlins.
Don't worry, I similarly express my surprise when, for example, I can go to Oakland in 2003 and buy tickets for a Game 5 against the Sox at the gate. But these places have a history, they actually have good fans who are loyal, they are great baseball towns. No doubt about it a certain part of my loathing is directed at the fact that Florida is just not a baseball place and that the primary motivation to have these teams exist is greedy owners who want to suckle at the MLB revenue teet. I mean the Trop was built before they even knew they would ever have a team there.
Tomoyo
Fate
So I haven't been following baseball terribly closely in the past few years, so I don't know exactly how the video replay is supposed to work, but can someone explain to me why the Victor Martinez home run wasn't ruled fan interference?
My understanding of the interference rule is that it doesn't matter if the fielder *would* have caught the ball -- the very fact that the fan reached over and interfered when the fielder had any chance to catch it is enough to rule the batter out -- and it was pretty obvious from replay that the fan reached over.
My understanding of the interference rule is that it doesn't matter if the fielder *would* have caught the ball -- the very fact that the fan reached over and interfered when the fielder had any chance to catch it is enough to rule the batter out -- and it was pretty obvious from replay that the fan reached over.
Formaldehyde
Both Fair And Balanced
Too bad hardly anybody shows up at the stadium. It is a real disgrace for a team that continues to do quite well despite not spending any money compared to its rivals.
Its a good thing this clearly muffed call in the 8th inning didn't cost the Rays the game as it very well could have done.
Speaking of bad calls, the pitch tracking system is showing how bad the umpire frequently is.
Only the Rays have been playing in the same one the city of St Pete built back in the 80s before they even had a baseball team. It really wasn't even built specifically for baseball and it shows.
The biggest problem with the Rays is the location of the stadium. It should really be in Tampa where they could attract a far larger audience than they currently can. But even so, they may still not be successful. Miami has far more people than Tampa/ St Pete / Orlando, and they are also struggling despite having a brand new stadium.
But I agree that MLB shouldn't subsidize teams. If they can't make it financially on their own, they should either fold or move elsewhere where there are willing fans to come to their games.
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