2006 World Series, Game 1 (in pictures)
I went to my 2nd ever World Series game last night. Like the first World Series game I attended, it was the first World Series game in the city in more than 2 decades. And, like the first World Series game I attended, the opposing manager was Tony LaRussa. And, like the first World Series game I attended, LaRussa's team routed the home team. That first game, back in 1989, is hardly remembered. The A's won 13-3, 10 days after the Loma Prieta earthquake.
Went with Karen and her brother Larry, amazingly his only other WS game was that very same game 3, 17 years ago.
The view from the right field side, as the Cardinals take batting practice. The Tigers are heavy favorites; considering that the Cardinals starting lineup includes David Eckstein leading off, as well as Juan Encarnacion, Yadier Molina and Ronnie Beliard, this is understandable. Most people expect that Detroit will sweep the series, and the big question is whether the Cardinals will win a single game.
Bob Seger performed America the Beautiful. Here's Bob very shortly afterwards.
The overhead camera. This is how Fox bombards TV viewers with fan shots, all night long.
The first pitch of the 2006 World Series. Justin Verlander delivers to David Eckstein. Someone please explain to me what David Eckstein is doing leading off for a major league baseball team!
Anhony Reyes deliers the first pitch to Curtis Granderson. Reyes is the opening night pitcher by default; Carpenter, Suppan and Weaver are all unavailable. Reyes is not a good choice, it would seem, he's an inconcistent rookie. The question seems to be not whether the Tigers will win, but by how much.
With 2 outs, Carlos Guillen drives in the first run of the World Series. The rout's on, right?
Didn't work out that way. Rolen tied in with a home run in the 2nd, then in the 3rd Tigers fell behind. After Chris Duncan's hit broke the tie, it was Albert Pujols' turn. It didn't last long. Let's put it this way: He didn't need more. This led to the one imaqge that no hometown team other than St. Louis ever wants to see:
Suddenly, Comerica Park was quiet, and it would stay that way for some time.
In the 6th inning, Jim Edmonds drove in Pujols to make in 5-1, and after a ground rule double by Scott Rolen, it was time to get Verlander out of the game.
The Tigers brought in the infield, but Brandon Inge bobbled the ball, threw late toward home, and threw it right past catcher Ivan Rodriguez. In the picture, Edmonds scores to make it 6-1, while Rolen steams toward third. Inge, meanwhile, is about to interfere with Rolen, thus making it two errors on the play for Rolen, and to make it 7-1. It's a rout -- just not the one we expected.
As for Reyes, he's turning in the performance of his life. Here he is, inducing Placido Polanco to miss in the 6th inning. He had retired 15 in a row at this point, and would eventually stretch in to 17. His performance was the story of the game.
By the 9th inning, there were plenty of empty seats at Comerica Park. This, too, was a reminder of that game from 1989. First World Series game or not, many people weren't sticking aroung to see the end of the rout.
Down 7-2 in the 9th, and still the scoreboard calls for Noise! Amazingly, a lot of the remaining fans cooperate. Makes me yearn for the good old days when fans didn't need scoreboards to tell them when to cheer.
After the game, the press descended on Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds and Yadier Molina for on-field interviews.
Final score: St. Louis 7, Detroit 2. Game conditions were nicer than expected -- 51 degrees at game time, and still 49 when it ended. The rain held off until near the 9th inning, and even then it was only a drizzle. And the field at Comerica Park looked great.
It's snowing in Detroit... Play Ball!
There's a saying around here, goes something like this: If you don't like the weather in Michigan, stick around, it'll change.
Of course, that doesn't always mean it'll get
better. What had been a merely cool fall turned frigid this morning. I woke up to 36 degrees outside. Good thing I covered the plants last night, though I don't know if the covering held -- it was pretty windy out there.
At about a quarter to 8, the snow started. According to reports that I have heard, this is the earliest ever recorded snow in the area. And this wasn't some tiny little squall, either, it was gusty with big flakes and limited visibility. There were white caps on the Detroit River today, and several more passing flurries during the afternoon. When I arrived home, there was snow on the ground. Still need to cover tonight, or at least make sure the covers haven't totally abandoned the plants -- not that there's much left, anyway.
In the middle of this, there's a baseball game scheduled for tomorrow: Game 3 of the ALCS between the Tigers and A's. Unbelievably, the game was originally scheduled for 8pm. By that hour, we are likely to have wind chills in the 20's. Thankfully, a Wednesday rainout in New York enabled some rescheduling here; the game will start during the afternoon. It'll mean that the RenCen should be busier than usual during the day, and from the elevators I'll be able to see the crowd in the stadium. Good football weather... play ball!
Barry Bonds post-mortem, part 2: Right on cue
Gotta hand it to
Gene Wojciechowski of
ESPN. In a
column he wrote for espn.com today, Wojo writes: "The martyr -- who missed 31 games in 2006, had only 367 at-bats, couldn't field his position, hit 29 points below his career average and produced his lowest home run total (in 112 games or more) since 1991 and his lowest RBI total (in 112 games or more) since 1989 -- is at it again. "
That's pretty much right on cue, as predicted two weeks ago, when I wrote: "Much commentary on Bonds’ performance this year has focused on how he is suddenly 'human' (at age 42, who isn’t?) or that he’s not as feared as he once was, or that the assumed steroids must have worn off... On the surface, these observations might seem to have some merit: As I write, Bonds has a .262 batting average, his lowest since 1989. His .532 slugging percentage and his .988 OPS are his lowest since 1991... He has scored 69 runs; he’s never been below 89 as a qualifier. His RBI total of 68 is his lowest since 1989, and only in his abbreviated 2005 season did he fail to exceed the 44 extra base hits he has so far this year – even in his rookie season of 1986 he had 45. Even his walk rate is way down this year."
Give Wojo credit, he's an "on the surface" type of guy, and in any case his basic thesis is that Bonds is a fraud. The implication, clearly, being that without the presumed steroids, Bonds is essentially an ineffective and hobbled has-been. Perhaps odd to note that Wojo omitted 1999 from his comparison seasons by limiting to "112 games or more"; of course, that season, in 434 plate appearances, the then age 34/35 Bonds batted just .262 with a .389 OBP, both lower numbers than this year.
Of course, then I went on to note that Bonds is having one of the best batting seasons ever for someone his age. Possibly the best season ever. Wojo makes light of Bonds playing "only" 130 games this season; the comparison seasons show that pretty much no one his age has ever been productive playing significantly more than that (of all the age 41+ seasons on my list, none exceeded 137 games played).
Bonds ended up the 2006 season with a .454 on base percentage. Although he fell 6 plate appearances short of being a "qualifier," he still wins the on base percentage title, since his lead would still be intact even with 6 more hitless at bats. He also finished with a .999 OPS; although that's the first time since 1991 he's under 1.000, it's still within 10 points of both his 1995 and 1999 seasons, and is good for 6th in the league. He should get MVP votes for how he carried the Giants in to contention near the end of the season; whether he
will get votes may depend on how many voters think like Wojo.
