S5Dewey

So a great catch doesn't affect his stats. Ask me again why I don't have a lot of confidence in these stats.

10:00 am - Weather.com says cloudy at game time but snow, rain and freezing rain throughout the afternoon starting before 2:00. We'll have to wait and see if they even bother to start this game. Temps hovering around the freezing point until around midnight when they go up into the 40's but the rain continues all day tomorrow.

I agree that on the whole he's not a troll. Probably an "agitator" is a better word for it. Maybe he sees himself as a Yankees friend of mine from another board has said (and yes, it's ok to have Yankees friends), he's just "keeping us honest". Of course, as I've said in the past, when someone uses "maybe" - as I just did - they're admitting that they don't have firm evidence to back up their position - they're just throwing something against the wall to see if it sticks. However, IMHO on this particular topic he's either perpetuating the discussion for the sake of perpetuating it or else he can't stand to see someone else have the last word. Most of us here see the video evidence as being pretty clear regarding what Austin did around second base and his charging the mound. Those two things are quite indisputable to any reasonable "hypothetical jury". The only thing that can be questioned is Kelly's response. IMO in the eyes of baseball people it was a normal - but unsanctioned - response while in the eyes of the "turn the other cheek" folks it's inexcusable. I can live with that.

I had a response to this ready to post and then I realized that should I do that I'm only 'feeding the troll'. No thanks. The facts (and the video) speak for themselves here. Here's some unbiased and pretty good advice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpbS0jD7H2A

Good Morning, Mr. Max. Your mission should you choose to accept it is to dethrone Thunder as the holder of the longest mojo streak this season. Should you fail in this attempt all members of TalkSox will disavow any knowledge of these instructions. This post will self-destroy 5 seconds after you read it.

And this is the crux of this argument - such as it is. Harmony has no case and he knows it so he's trying to deflect the issue to something Mookie did three years ago. Austin clearly went out of his way to come into contact with Holt with his spikes up - the angle from left field proves it. What Mookie may or may not have done in 2015 has no bearing on what Austin did in 2018. End of story.

Aha! A convert!!

Weakening up two outfield spots in order to slightly increase the offense of a team that's winning is almost the definition of a "fool's errand". If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Naw. Johnny is going to be on Dancing with the Stars. Gaaaaag

I can't wait to see that! Actually I was disappointed that YOUK locked that game thread as early as he did. I was enjoying watching Harmony twist in the wind as he was trying to say it was a clean play. Who are you going to believe, Harmony or your lying eyes? LOL

And Austin will get two because he was the "victim". Joe Torre in action. It won't surprise anyone.

lol

I didn't see anything personal in there. He's only looking for a clarification on the rule. Do you know more about that rule than he, as an ex-coach does? If so would you be willing to help him.. and all of us?

Then maybe you know something about this that the umpires don't know, because the umpires told Cora that it's not reviewable. If there was no review it can't be said what the review found because the review didn't exist. Sheesh.

I feel pretty safe. I'm in the Witness Protection Program and nobody has found me yet!

Do you have to butter up your head to push it through doorways, too?

I've seen high slides too, and that was another one last night. Now would you also like to explain to me how Austin's spikes innocently got tangled up in Holt's uniform when Austin's spikes were clearly at least a foot toward the pitchers mound from the bag? Yes, It was all Holt's fault. In fact, if you look closely you can even see a leash from around Austin's waist to Holt's hand that Holt used to pull Austin toward him after the spiking. Maybe the biggest joke of the day is what Austin said in the postgame interview when he said he went "over the bag". Yes, his ass went over the bag but his spikes that struck Holt were well toward the pitcher's mound. Obviously credibility isn't a big deal with the Yankees.

It's a great sport. I run the scoreboard for the local HS wrestling team.

You really need to watch the video before posting crap like that. Look about 20 seconds into the video. Austin came at the base spikes up and even chased Holt's leg significantly to the inside of the bag in his attempt to "get to the base" where he clipped (in Jerry's words) Holt's leg. After the play Holt said something to Austin at which point Austin took steps toward Holt until there was barely room for the umpire to intervene between the two. Austin was clearly the aggressor, both in the slide and in the confrontation that took place afterward. Everything that happened afterward, including Kelly's "inside pitch" to Austin later in the game would have been avoided if Austin had played a clean game.

Any word on suspensions yet?

I've now watched the replay a couple of times and as much as it pains me to admit this, you're right. Austin slammed the bat down and took four steps by my count toward the mound before breaking into a run. Vaz had adequate time to get between the two. He at least should have remained close enough to Austin to have pulled him down from behind when he (Austin) started running.

A wrestling fan, I see.

Yeah. And don't leave out the 30,000 fans "surrounding" Kelly either! And yet Austin got to the mound before any of the 30,000+! I don't need a "review" to tell me a cheap shot when I see it, whether it's Austin or Machado.

I liked the rule - or at least the concept of it - at first but now I'm coming around to not liking it. The change was designed to prevent injuries but instead it seems to sometimes create a different injury. My "solution" FWIW would be to use a double-base much like the one used at 1B in softball only with the "new" part extending directly toward CF. The fielder would be entitled to any part of the double base and the runner responsible for any contact. (Feel free to trash this idea. Like everyone, my having an idea it doesn't make it a good one!)

Ryan Dempster will always be the gold standard for plunking someone, but I agree that Kelly did the right thing and in a timely manner.