Well, Cal.E. hit the catnip again. She was celebrating her fiftieth post a little early, I’m afraid. She may need to go to rehab. I will be sitting in for her today. I will go away from the usual format because it is the opening game of the World Series tonight, and my and Cal.E.’s favorite team, the Houston Astros, are, once again, playing in it (for the third time in the last five years.
First, let me say something about the Astros’ opponent, the Atlanta Braves. I have respect for that organization. They employed (at least) two black players in the still segregated South in the late 1960s and early 1970s One of the two players is the Astros’ present manager, Dusty Baker. The other is regarded by many (including me) as the greatest baseball player of all time-Hank Aaron. IF the Braves do win the series, my hat is off to them. They have overcome a lot of controversies this year to get where they are.
I do NOT, however, respect the present commissioner of MLB Rob (his NOT a) Man, Fred. The reason being is that, if the Astros do win the series (I believe that they will in six games), the Astros will get no respect. It will be because of all the injuries the Braves suffered this year, etc. Never mind that the Astros are missing their two best pitchers (Justin Verlander all this year and Lance McCullers, Jr. for the last playoff series and the World Series). Houston’s third-best pitcher, Zack Greinke, seems to be lost in space at this time. Hopefully, he will recover to help bolster the young starting pitching staff. If he does not, their Astros still have a stable of young pitchers who are doing well.
Also, the Astros are missing Charlie (Money Man) Morton from their World Series-winning 2017 team. He is on the mound for the opponent tonight. The MVP of the ’17 series, George (Mr. November) Springer now plays in Canada.
The Astros did themselves a favor when they hired Baker to be their manager. He and his teammate and mentor, Hammerin’ Hank, saw all kinds of adversity when they were playing for the Braves and Aaron was approaching Babe Ruth’s hallowed lifetime home run record. Aaron taught his disciple how to handle adversity well. The Astros needed him at this time, mainly because the commissioner pointed a finger at the Astros for cheating and said little, if anything, about the other two teams he investigated and found guilty, the Boston Red Sox and the self-righteous New York Yankees. Each team used advanced technology, while the Astros used trash cans. Yet, according to the commissioner, they only cheated “a little bit.“. (Rob, was your wife ever “a little bit” pregnant?)
MLB will not investigate all teams. They only go on the words of known cheats, such as Mike “Pine tar Hand” Fiers. MLB let the players watch themselves in previous at-bats on video during their games. IF a player does NOT notice that, each time the catcher puts down two fingers on his second set of signals, the pitcher throws a curveball, he is just NOT paying attention. Most teams will try to use this knowledge to their advantage.
If I were Dusty Baker or Astros’ owner Jim Crane, I would refuse to take the trophy from Rob (He’s NOT a) Man, Fred. I have no respect for someone who only caters to the big market teams. However, Rob is overlooking the fact that Greater Houston has about seven million people, all rooting for the Astros. Add the Austin and San Antonio area, whose citizens usually root for the Astros during baseball season (even if these poor, misguided souls DO root for the Cowboys during football season) and it adds up to about the same amount of people as live in Chicago Land. (It sounds like someone needs a math lesson).
The Astros perpetrated the “biggest scandal since the Black Sox in 1919," according to the commissioner. That is why the MLB’s all-time hits leader (Pete Rose) and MLB’s now lifetime home run champ (Barry Bonds) are in the Hall of Fame. Oh, wait, they are not. Something about steroids and gambling on baseball (although Rose bet on HIMSELF to win games. Is that not what one is supposed to do in life?)
Who IS in the hallowed hall? A man who wrote a book about how he used foreign substances to pitch- which is illegal, according to the rules of MLB (Gaylord Perry) and a notorious racist who sharpened his cleats before games to punish opposing middle infielders who tried to tag him out at second base (Ty Cobb). As far as using equipment to determine pitches, that has been going on since 1899, according to some reliable sources. Even the most famous home run ever hit, “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World,” was a result of cheating. Bobby Thompson admitted, before he died, that the Pirates had a camera in center field that picked up the catcher’s signals in that (and probably most other) games.
I said more than Cal.E. usually does, but then, I AM a human, she is a cat She will be back tomorrow (hopefully).
GO ASTROS!!!
I'm d.c. scot, and this has been one human's (correct) opinion
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