Steve Bartman should not be "Catching Hell"

ESPN is airing a 30 for 30 Documentary tonight (right now!) on Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS and Steve Bartman. Its a crying shame that a guy has basically been forced to become a recluse because of a city's desire to feel "cursed" and ignore the facts of what happened in that game and beyond:

....That ball was a foul ball. Not a homerun. Not a double. It affected nothing other than making Mark Prior throw another pitch with the score 3-0 and just one guy on base! Is it Bartman's fault that he walked the guy?

....Bartman just did what every other fan would do (you can see four other guys including this one reaching for the ball) 

....Is it Steve Bartman's fault that Alex Gonzalez booted a routine grounder to shortstop two batters later?

....Is it is his fault that three pitchers after Prior couldn't get out of the inning before ultimately letting up 8 runs?

And most importantly.......This all happened in GAME 6! How is it Steve Bartman's fault that the Cubs still had their second best pitcher ready for Game 7 in Kerry Wood who also blew a lead, this time earlier in the game?

If Moises Alou (a guy know for urinating on his own hands to avoid callouses BTW) doesn't jump up and down like a spoiled kid told he can't get the toy he wants, does anyone even notice Bartman? Instead Steve Bartman's life was ruined cause the Cubs were unable to hold a lead in a game they had a 95% chance of winning when the inning started. Yeah, that's a great way to treat one of your biggest fans.

Hurricane Ohlendorf Strikes Again

(9/21/11: Another Ohlendorf Disaster)

The Pittsburgh Pirates' Ross Ohlendorf is a really smart guy. The Princeton grad even did an internship with the Agriculture Department two offseasons ago.

But Ohlendorf absolutely sucks at baseball.

A quick run down of the 29 year-old's 2011 stats:

• BAA: .374
  


• WHIP: 1.99



• ERA: 8.29.

The Pirates rotation is far more productive when Ohlendorf's on injured reserve. At least when he's hurt, he can't hurt the team.

Ohlendorf has had his employer convinced--for years--that he would eventually fulfill his potential. That "potential" got Ohlendorf $2.03 million this year. Like I said, Ohlendorf is a really smart guy.

Either that, or the Pirates are incredibly stupid.

For Patriots, It's All Black and White

I'm not calling the New England Patriots organization racist.

Since 2005, the Patriots starting offensive line has been entirely caucasion while their starting defensive line has been 100% African American. See for yourself & compare this with, say, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Typically, NFL trenches are a pretty diverse group. Then again, the Patriots have always done things their own way.

I'm not calling the Patriots organization racist--even if the evidence is pretty black and white.

Mariano Rivera's Record...A Rant about Saves

I saw on Twitter this afternoon (apologize for not linking as I couldn't find the exact tweet, but do remember the exact numbers and verified it here) that since the beginning of 1996, the Pirates as a team via numerous closers have 592 saves. Mariano Rivera in that same time period has 597 of his newly record breaking 602 saves.

This was shocking to me intitially, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense and further exposed probably the most ridiculous stat in baseball. 

The Yankees have obviously been much much better than the Pirates since 1996. How are the save totals (just guessing but Rivera has probably 90-95% of the Yankee saves) so close? Easy. Just about every team is going to get a whole bunch of saves at some point in the season no matter what happens due to the nature of the baseball season. Its just a matter of who gets them. 

Rivera deserves a ton of credit for consistency and mostly good health since 1996 but someone was going to get those saves for the Yankees. No matter what the media will have you believe, most relief pitchers can hold a 2 or 3 run lead for one inning the overwhelming majority of the time. Research that I don't feel like looking up right now puts that percentage at 90+ . 

The "closer mentality" is a myth that ends up hurting teams who refuse to use their closer in the true spot that would save the game. This is often way before the 9th inning (ex. 2 on with no outs in the 7th or 8th inning) but the manager "can't" use the closer in a non-save situation cause then who will work the 9th? After all, its been "proven" that not just anyone can get those last three outs. And more importantly, what will the home stadium play to fire up the crowd if the closer isn't coming in to his entrance music?

Back to Rivera....He is a very good pitcher and undoubtedly the best closer of all time. I am just not sure what that really means with the way closers are used these days. Of course, I would much rather have him hold the saves record than a guy who let up back to back game losing 9th inning homeruns to Ryan Doumit (Trevor Hoffman). However, Rivera is not anywhere near a first ballot Hall of Famer. How many games did he TRULY add to the Yankees win column over the years? Based on how close the number of saves are between a good team and bad team in a 15 year period, I am extremely hesitant to put any relievers in the Hall of Fame....

Addendum: This is all Tony Larussa's fault. He created the modern one inning save situation and closer in the late 80s and early 90s with Dennis Eckersley. Just one more reason to dislike Larussa and his over-managing.

Addendum #2: Further proof of the ridiculousness of saves. 13th on the all times saves list with a decent chance to get to the top 6? Francisco Cordero. I don't think Reds' fans even have faith in him. Oh, and 14th is Jose Mesa.

Touchdown's "Pick Six"

Pick six, Touchdown

All odds are based on Danny Sheridan's lines as of 9:00 EST this morning.

#6. New England at San Diego, over/under = 51. Take the over. New England is good for 40 points a week, and their defense is abysmal. This shootout will go over 55 total points.

#5. Houston, -3, at Miami. Take Houston. Houston looked bad last week, which fits with their three-year M.O. of alternating poor and awesome performances. They were bad last week...they'll be good today.

#4. New England, -6.5, at San Diego. Take New England. I can't imagine New England winning by less than a touchdown against an overmatched Chargers team.

#3. Kansas City, +8.5, at Detroit. Take KC. Are we already at the point where we consider Detroit a powerhouse? You might be. I'm not. KC wasted a first round choice this year, but that doesn't mean they can't lose to the Lions by less than 8.5 points.

#2. Philadelphia at Atlanta, over/under = 50.5. Take the under. Both teams' offenses are inconsistent when they go against decent defenses, and 50.5 is a lot of points.

#1. Seattle, -13.5, at Pittsburgh. Take the Steelers. Honestly, I have no idea who the Seahawks quarterback is. Pittsburgh might be old and slow, but Ben Roethlisberger is in for a huge day.

ACC-ya later, Big East!

Pitt and Syracuse are joining the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Wonder how TCU feels about this?

3 Most Overrated Steelers

2011's Most Overrated Steelers

3. Casey Hampton. "Snack" is a good nose tackle, but he's as overrated as he is over weight. He never generates a pass rush, and contrary to what the media obsessively reports, it does not take three men to block him. He's only marginally better than his back up, but paid a whole lot more. Maybe he should put his money where his mouth is.



2. Rashard Mendenhall. Rashard spun his way into trouble this off season with ridiculous quotes about slavery and Osama Bin Laden. Not surprisingly, he fumbled last week on 9/11. Of course, Rashard doesn't discriminate--he's willing to fumble in the worst possible situations. Any way you spin it, he's overrated.



1. Hines Ward. By slow, I don't mean Hines is unintelligent. By slow,I mean that Hines is about as fast as Casey Hampton. He's had a terrific career, but he has no business playing ahead of Emmanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown. Opposing secondaries can shift their coverages towards Mike Wallace without any risk, because Ward isn't fast enough to get downfield on his routes. It's a cryin shame, ya know?


Honorable mention: James Farrior, Troy Polamalu