I agree about the homeplate umpiring being inconsistent.
The Sox might have been spared Ortiz's boneheaded base-running mistake in the 4th inning if Gorman had called an obvious strike 3 on Ramirez (on the 0-2 pitch).
Also, the first pitch to Ramirez in the 6th sure looked like a strike as well. Even more so after the 3-0 pitch (MUCH further inside) was called a strike.

Why the Red Sox are almost as obnoxious as the Yankees? Red Sox fan whining. If the batter didn't swing at it it must not be a strike. 10 inches off the plate? You must be joking. Even a Sox fan isn't that blind.

Hmmm...

1) I mention that CLE got hosed on calls as well.

2) The two pitches I go into any detail on were well documented on FOX's K-Zone (or equivalent thereof).

Some Sox fans can really be obnoxious. I will grant you that. But I think the blanket "Sox fans are all obnoxious" crowd comes off pretty bad in his/her own right.

I didn't say all Red Sox fans are obnoxious. Would you have complained about bad calls if the Sox had won? And by the way, what is with all of the bat and helmet smashing when the Sox players make an out?

Howdy, just a comment or two on the Rockies.

If anything, the sudden surge in Rockies attendance reflects how out of it they were when they started playing the Marlins. I've been a die hard since '93 (I've been to hundreds of games, and probably watched well over 1,000), and I've always known Colorado would rally around the Rockies if they were a good team (many attendance records were shattered in the mid-nineties by Rockies fans). As you mention, however, this run has come out of nowhere. The bandwagon may not be filling up with die-hards, but those same fans that made '93-'98 so special at Coors Field and Mile High are coming back. Look for big attendance numbers next season, as well as a better team start to finish.

I would add, also, that this Rockies team is certainly a testament to the importance of luck in baseball, but it is also indicative of how balanced (and shallow) the NL is. I have always thought that 2008 would be the Rockies year to start contending, especially after the awful start they had this year, but no one in the NL was good enough to run away with their division. The run the Rockies had to close the season ordinarily would have been irrelevant, because 72 losses is often too many. The Rockies, however, ended up only 0.5 games back of having the best record in the National League. This is, I think, a good team, and more balanced than they are usually given credit for, but it's not hard to see that, even though the two best teams in the NL were San Diego and New York, no one in the NL was good enough to run away with a playoff spot. That opened the door for the Rockies.

Oh well, I'm glad to see the series in Denver either way. And this run is the stuff legend. Go Rockies!

The Drew tidbit is just amazing. Great stuff, Joe.

Tidbit about JD Drew doesn't seem right to me. Looking at the BR PI link, unless I'm reading it wrong (quite possible), It's saying that JD Drew a walk *EVERY* time he got a 3-0 count since 1999. That he didn't put it in play sounds hard to believe, but that he walked every time is even harder to believe.

Heh, the "JD Drew a walk" was an unintentional play on words.

Also, to elaborate on why I'm so distrustful of that factoid. The disbelief is heightened because that means he was never thrown a single strike, after a 3-0, in 8 years? He never faced one pitcher that grooved a get-me-over-fastball?

Aaaaand, now, I just realized how I misread the data. I'm a moron. Feel free to mock me.

No wait. I don't think I did mis-read. The BR link *does* seem to indicate that JD walked on the forth pitch of the AB.

Or am I crazy? (on this point)

I'm totally confused. You should probably just delete my posts.

Kyle, the numbers include only those PA's that ended on the 3-0 count, or fourth pitch, for Drew.

If he had taken everytime, as I suspect he might have, he would have a 1.000 OBP because if it were a strike it would become 3-1 and thus this categorization would no longer account for the PA's final result. And if it were a ball, well, he would walk.

Thanks for the explanation, Sully. Simple enough, but my brain wasn't kicking in. I think I recognized it for a moment, thus my third post, but my brain got tired and let me down with that fourth post.

My excuse is that I'm just got over a bout with food poisoning so I'm not thinking quite straight yet. That, and I'm a moron. :)

The Rockies' streak, the wild-card Series winners, the Cardinals' run to the Series win last year--as well as the Cards' failures when they had 100 or more wins--go to show that the modern playoff setup tends to favor the team that gets hot at season's end (and/or the postseason) much more than did the two-winners system of the eight-team league days. That will always be true in a multi-team playoff system that includes teams that finish second (baseball) or worse(hockey & basketball).

The Rockies' streak, the wild-card Series winners, the Cardinals' run to the Series win last year--as well as the Cards' failures when they had 100 or more wins--go to show that the modern playoff setup tends to favor the team that gets hot at season's end (and/or the postseason) much more than did the two-winners system of the eight-team league days. That will always be true in a multi-team playoff system that includes teams that finish second (baseball) or worse(hockey & basketball).

I'd like to see some enterprising blogger frame and try to figure out this whole Matsuzaka situation. The hype was simply tremendous. There was an oft-quoted bit about Matsuzaka: "He has six plus pitches and can throw them all for strikes whenever he wants to." Hmmm. He's looked awful in the playoffs, bad post ASB, and aside from a June in which he cleaned up on the likes of San Diego and San Francisco, he hasn't looked anywhere close to the billing.

I think he can rebound and the problem could probably be more be from that amazing level of hype and expectations than from what he ends up doing.