yankees228

Ugh, the 3-2 pitch to Teixeira completely dictated the course of the inning. What a surprise.

Hearing the Angels talk about taking it one game at a time really reminds of me of 2004. That series has really been on my mind since the Yankees went up 2-0. For what it's worth, I'm not saying that because the Angels are talking like that they're going to comeback. It just sparked up the memory.

Which is exactly why I posted this http://www.stevesteinberg.net/indexspitball_howitsthrown.htm on the first page of the thread. What Rivera did is not how you load a baseball.

Personally, I'm not freaking out at all. Like you alluded to, Elston Howard used to cut the ball all the time for Whitey Ford. All I'm saying is that it's pretty clear at this point that he did not spit on the ball.

The one thing worth noting is that Pedro did not pitch in the NLDS because of the low temperatures, but he pitched a NLCS game in warm weather. If it's Yankees-Phillies, the Phillies won't have the luxury of pitching him in warm weather. That brings up two questions: 1. Will he even get a start if the series is Yankees-Phillies? 2. If he does get a start, how effective will he be in cold temperatures?

Already took off your Angels' cap?

Exactly what couldn't happen to the Dodgers...

Take it from someone that watches almost every Yankees' game. Mo spits all the time. The ball happened to be in the vicinity. That means absolutely nothing.

What you said isn't incorrect because someone would never do something that stupid. What you said is incorrect because it is now clear he did not spit on the ball.

Three blatant missed calls last night, and possibly another one at second. It doesn't excuse the umpires, but at least the calls really didn't have an effect on the score. The missed call on the pickoff at second base, and then the missed call on Swisher leaving third early evened each other out. And, even though the Angels should have been out of the fifth inning a batter earlier, Melky grounded out to end the inning, without any runs scoring. However, the two blown calls by Tim McClelland bother me. It was pointed out on the FOX broadcast that McClelland should have been further back on the fly ball to center field, in order to watch the catch and the base runner. The replay appeared to show that he was only watching the catch. I also don't believe that McClelland intentionally missed the call to make up for the bad call at second, in part because there is no way McClelland could have known it was a bad call. He was in no position to get a good view of whether or not Swisher was tagged out before getting back to the bag. However, even if he knew it was a bad call, I still don't think a veteran like McClelland would do that. However, the worst call, mainly based on his explanation, was the one where Cano should have been out. Based on his post game interview, it seemed like he just assumed that both runners would go to the back. It was as if McClelland had it predetermined in his mind what was going to happen, and blew the call because of it.

Which is what made the loss on Monday so tough to take. With two strikes, you cannot get beat by Vlad on a 91 MPH fastball.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVe8MhfEbnY Obviously that's not the still photo, but it should suffice. (Same one I posted earlier in the thread.)

Actually, some of my favorite pitchers of all were known to doctor the ball. Watching Mike Scott in the 1986 NLCS was incredible.

Lol, this made me laugh. The use of such definitive statements is pretty funny.

Haha I know. I posted that second link before I saw your post.

http://www.stevesteinberg.net/indexspitball_howitsthrown.htm Read the first one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVe8MhfEbnY This video also slows it down, and the spit appears to miss the ball. I think Jacko's explanation is spot on. From the perspective of someone who watches the vast majority of the Yankee games, he spits all the time.

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/hardball/mlb_investigating_accusations_that_KUYl75fHTsuAqmMedUNsSP Apparently Major League Baseball doesn't think he's guilty. Whatever. I guess now the question becomes whether or not people are going to hold this against him.

Hey, Mariano is already grandfathered it for one thing, maybe this is another.

That's not true if Pettitte makes a quality two strike pitch to Guerrero. After that I agree, but I firmly believe that if he bounces a slider in that spot, the Yankees probably win the game.

I'll trust gameday.