a700hitter

How many teams are in your league?

No one could block the plate like Varitek. I kept waiting for someone to take out his left leg and end his career, but that leg must have been made of concrete. I'll never forget the playoff game where Eric Brynes spun around after hitting his leg and missed home plate. Byrnes was limping around and cursing as Varitek chased down the ball and tagged him out on the way back to the dugout. I guess that aspect of Tek's game is outlawed today.

It is to your credit that us old guys converse with you. It means that you are a thinking young man with something interesting to say and who behaves in a mature manner. I am sure that you can find other internet places predominated with young jackasses, but I am guessing geezerland is more interesting.

And they will be getting a new ballpark.

I remember that year very well. Yaz, uncharacteristically, did not hit his first home run until July 2nd I think. Also, Luis Tiant came out of the bullpen and back from the dead to become El Tiante as he rolled of an incredible string of CG shutouts. His ERA was 1.61 that season or somewhere around that. Also, that was Pudge Fisk's rookie year. It was a very exciting year that ended with a thud.

Why is Betts out of the game?

Wright is quickly becoming my favorite knuckleball pitcher since 1995 Tim Wakefield.

Panic move.

My recollection is that Fisk was a better hitter in the majors than in the minors.

They whine about Peyton Manning for some reason. Pats fans hate the guy.

We may have to keep the little second baseman. He's looking vintage on both sides of the ball.

If a player stinks, it is going to be stated here -- often by me. It is not a personal attack, it is an opinion like a review. A personal attack would be an attack on their character like calling them criminals or cheats.

I endorse this lineup.

Two managers that I thought highly of were Whitey Herzog and Sparky Anderson. Sparky was ahead of his time with his use of the bullpen. Whitey, too was an innovator, although some of his most innovative ideas such as three 3 inning pitchers in each game never could be implemented because the players union would have gone crazy and no one would want to pitch for his team for financial reasons.

I liked Francona. His game decisions did make you scratch your head too often, but before 2011, he had the respect of his team and he was able to motivate them.

Also, Torre was very adept at looking the other way when half of his team had needles stuck in their buttocks.

It was pretty obvious in that World Series that he was locked in and everyone else was flailing like they were swinging at a pinata. He adjusted much to slowly to the conditions within the game and the series, and he got outmanaged by Farrell, who pushed mainly all the right buttons in that Series.

When I hear ex-players talk about managers that they admired, it is usually guys who impressed them with seeing things that they the players didn't see themselves. I have heard many players who were awestruck when they were young players after speaking to a coach or manager after a game, because of the coaches insights and observations. I don't think Yogi Berra was a great manager, because he lacked the ability to inspire or motivate, but he was a great coach. I heard many stories from former players who would be awestruck at the things Berra saw in a game. He wasn't a "see the ball, hit the ball" dummy like people would like to believe.

I have seen this. You will not see it n TV -- one of the things that you will see if you are at the games. Last year, Terry Collins would go to his flip binder often last year. At times, they even caught him doing it on TV. The 2013 World Series was the time to do it. Ortiz was not only the best and most dangerous hitter on the team but as UN would say, he was hotter than blacksmith's coal and everyone else was stone cold. I'll have to disagree with you on this. I kept expecting him to walk Ortiz, and I was glad that he did not. It dawned on him in game 6 and then the other bats got it going.

Yet, Ozzie was successful, interesting and colorful. He would not have been a better manager if he kept his mouth shut. He just would have had his job longer.

For all the plaudits regarding the intelligence of some managers, they rarely live up to their press clippings. Matheny had a big hand in losing the 2013 World Series. He insisted on pitching to Big Papi for the first 5 games when he was our only hot hitter. It was bizarre. I took great delight in it. Papi continued to destroy the Cards and Matheny finally walked Ortiz in game 6 (4 times) when the rest of the bats came alive -- even Drew went deep with his second hit of the Series (the other being an infield pop that fell in front of the pitcher's mound in game 1). I don't think much of Ausmus either. You don't need to be a member of Mensa to be a good manager. The studying of every stat and spray chart is over kill. Player's tendencies are pretty well known after they are in the league for a while. It doesn't take a lot of studying. Their main job is to keep the troops ready and motivated -- and even the best of managers has a limited shelf life in that regard with an organization. As for in-game management, the managers that have the ability to think ahead usually are the best, not the ones who are pouring over data in the dugouts trying to figure out matchups or defensive alignments. That stuff should be done before the game. Doing it during the game demonstrates unpreparedness to me and it is a distraction for the manager who should be completely alert to the game.

Showalter ...yuk. I can't stand that guy. His ego outsizes his brain by an immeasurable magnitude.

The media aspect of the job is highly overblown. These guys basically say nothing beyond platitudes. A manager's post game press conference is useless, boring, and robotic. Rarely does any insight into a game come out of a press conference. It's all very formal, sterile and formulaic. The Press got better stories and more insight in the 60's, 70's and 80's when these meeting were informal and in the manager's office. The managers were less guarded, because the atmosphere was such that the managers talked to reporters when they had something to get off their chests. The result was more candor, because they didn't feel pressured to field questions like a politician at a Town Hall.

If the job is bigger than it used to be, then baseball needs to do a better job of getting people who can at least walk and chew gum at the same time.

There are 30 managerial positions, tons of candidates and yet mosst of the postions are filled with people who just aren't very bright or good managers of people.