Are There Any BASEBALL Fans On The Forum?

[whitebuffalo58]

Here now!! Be nice to them red birds, they've earned their wings!!

WB

[jerryd6818]

That doesn't mean I have to like it.

So it's Boston and St. Louis.

[rangerbluedog]

Yeah, this one is a coin toss for me. Who do I root for - hmmmmm. Think I'm going with the team wearing RED.

[jerryd6818]

Go for it Blue. It will put some meaning in your life.

The Cardinals are so damn persistent, I gotto go with them.

[CobraBill]

Red sox won game one, 8 to 1.
Come on Cardinals!!!

[jerryd6818]

Jeez Louise. You can't expect St. Louis to win when they play like a Little League team. Two errors by the third inning? And somebody has to catch that infield pop-up, not just stand there and watch it plop between you like cow flop. It was a wierd game. I turned it off and went to bed when it was 6-1.

[jerryd6818]

The Cardinals turn. 1-1 now.

[CobraBill]

The RedSox looked like the Bad News Bears in the 7th inning!!!!

[CobraBill]

The Cardinals take another one, making it two games to one.
It ended with an obstruction call on the R.Sox 3rd baseman.
A win is a win.

[jerryd6818]

I heard the talking heads say last night that when the Series is tied at one game apiece, the team that wins game three has a statistical advantage but I can't remember what odds they quoted.

It was still tied last night when I went to bed so I didn't see the controversial play(s?).

[CobraBill]

R.Sox win game 4, four to two. They tied up the series two to two.
Another interesting ending.
Bottom of the 9th, SL has a man at first, two men out.
The runner on first gets himself picked off for the 3rd out to end the game.

[glennbad]

McCarver is a joke. He goes on about "why is the 1st baseman holding the runner on?" Then they pick the runner off at first.

Course, St. Louis could've laced a hit between 1st and 2nd, then he would've looked like a genius.

It's been an interesting WS so far. I would say entertaining, but watching these games is not good for my heart, LOL!

[jerryd6818]

All those talking heads are annoying. Most of the time, I watch with the sound turned off. It's a much more pleasant game without their jabbering.

[rangerbluedog]

All those talking heads are annoying. Most of the time, I watch with the sound turned off. It's a much more pleasant game without their jabbering.

+1
ESPECIALLY McCARVER.

[jerryd6818]

Why World Series caller Tim McCarver is hated but should be respectedThe innovative and contentious Fox baseball analyst Tim McCarver will leave the national stage after broadcasting his record 24th World Series

McCarver.jpg (31.99 KiB) Viewed 3377 times

Tim McCarver has enjoyed a 55-year baseball career both as a player and a broadcaster. Photograph: Heather Ainsworth/AP

The Hall of Fame has an award that's presented annually to a baseball broadcaster – it's called the Ford C Frick Award, named after the sportswriter turned third Commissioner of Baseball. It's basically a lifetime achievement award for those who bring the game into living rooms, bars, cars, and nowadays, just about anywhere. Winning it means your name is stuck up on a plaque inside the Hall of Fame library, which is not quite the same as being a Hall-of-Fame player or manager but it's still a hefty honor to have on your resume. Baseball fans will recognize many of the winners – Mel Allen, Red Barber, Harry Caray, Jack Buck, Ernie Harwell, and, of course, Vin Scully, who won the award in 1982 and is still every bit as good today as he was back in 1950. If you take a look at the entire list, almost every single broadcaster is either a local icon or adored by baseball fans around the globe. Then there's Tim McCarver.

The ex-Cardinals, Phillies, Expos and Red Sox catcher has called more World Series games on television than anyone else but is a deeply polarizing figure amongst fans, getting very little of the love reserved for the Scullys and Allens of the baseball world. His calling of the 2013 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the St Louis Cardinals will be his last of 24 Fall Classics, dating back to 1989 when an Earthquake rocked San Francisco and Oakland as the Giants and A's met

With the exception of Hall of Famer second baseman-turned-analyst Joe Morgan, who paired with Jon Miller on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball for well over a decade, few other recent baseball analysts have garnered the criticism that McCarver takes on a regular basis. Still, someone must like him, and he must have done something right, because he has been front and center alongside another highly contentious personality, Joe Buck, for many years on the FOX Network.

Tim McCarver was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and made his Major League debut at the tender age of 17, catching for the St Louis Cardinals, a stint which included forming a battery with Bob Gibson while winning two World Series titles. After his lengthy career, McCarver moved on to broadcasting, starting off in Philadelphia, where he paired with another Ford Frick Winner, Harry Kalas, then with the Mets and Yankees for nearly 20 years, while mixing his national network responsibilities along the way.

Over the years, McCarver has been paid to deliver opinions, and has done so in droves. Many believe he talks too much, and goes overboard with the analysis, states the obvious, and paints himself into a corner on issues as he recently in the NLCS with baseball's unwritten rules. The fans that can't wait for McCarver to leave the national scene are a testament to that somewhat strange ill will, as are the many postseason tweets that include the words "Tim McCarver" and "mute".

So it's fair to say that when Vin Scully finally retires, he'll get slightly better treatment, as did other greats of baseball past, which is not entirely fair. While McCarver began his broadcasting career mostly serving as a play-by-play broadcaster, which means simply calling the action as you see it, the latter half of his career has seen him assume the analyst role, which means filling long baseball games with a lot of opinions. When they're strong ones like McCarver's it opens you up to criticism, and sometimes even more. The tweeter above mentioned Deion, who is Deion Sanders, the Atlanta Braves outfielder who once confronted McCarver after he took issue with the two-sport star playing in the National League Championship Series and an NFL game on the same day. Sanders doused him with ice water, prompting the now famous words from McCarver "You're a real man Deion."

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xdTYVxzEwI[/youtube]
Even Family Guy piled on.

While it's clear that McCarver's style and opinions have generated equally forceful ones in return, it would is foolish and unfair to doubt the knowledge of a catcher who caught Gibson, Steve Carlton and two no-hitters over a wildly long 21-year playing career, and to counter the twittersphere, some outlets have taken the time to point out why McCarver earned respect with his peers, and the innovations he brought to broadcasting baseball, which includes his ability to forecast plays - sometimes even accurately.

During Game Two of this year's World Series, with a runner on in the bottom of the sixth inning and David Ortiz at the plate facing Michael Wacha, McCarver more or less called what was to come, a two run home run which gave Boston a temporary 2-1 lead over the Cardinals. "Boy he's locked in, dangerous hitter right now" said McCarver. OK, Papi's certainly on fire at the moment, and he's most definitely had a penchant for the dramatic this October, but he said it and it happened, and if you're going to take away points, you have to award them as well.

That prediction pales in comparison to the granddaddy of them all, which came in 2001 when McCarver forecast the exact World Series winning play just moments before it happened. In the bottom of the ninth inning, with the scored tied 2-2, Arizona Diamondbacks Luis Gonzalez' base hit off the Yankees Mariano Rivera brought home the series winning run. Just before Gonzalez ended New York's dynasty, McCarver said "Rivera throws inside to left-handers" and "left-handers get a lot of broken-bat hits into the shallow part of the outfield." That's exactly what happened (which you can see for yourself 1:51 into the below video tribute to McCarver's career).
At age 72, McCarver is now days away from his final game on FOX, meaning his coverage of All-Star Games and the World Series will soon be a thing of the past. However, he's left open the possibility of calling games on a more local level or on cable. Wherever McCarver ends up, the critics are sure to be waiting.

[rangerbluedog]

My favorite Tim McCarver clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO9jo8XkOfA

[jerryd6818]

Sure looks like Boston from my house.

Boston 3 - St. Louis 2

[glennbad]

It has been too close to call the whole way. If Boston doesn't take it in Game 6, I think St. Louis will win it in Game 7

[daddynewton]

Every team I have been for during the playoffs have lost starting with the reds. It is a good thing I don't gamble.

[junebug]

newton.....glad yer a CARDINALS FAN .............

[jerryd6818]

I can't really say I give much of a hoot who wins. All the teams I was hoping would go all the way, are relaxin' on some beach in Mexico right now.

[rangerbluedog]

Same here, I'm not too concerned either way. I guess I'm kinda sorta hoping the BOSOX win 'cause they have a single-A farm club near me. (Greenville Drive)
That, and they have the Duck Dynasty look going on...

[jerryd6818]

Sure looks like you're going to get your wish, Blue. 6-0 Boston in the top of the fifth. I kinda figured it was all over when Wacha beaned Jonny Gomes with two on and two out in the third and then Victorino doubled 'em all home.


Hey Cardinals. Maybe next year.

[Cutty]

Yeah, looks like the bean town bombers are gonna do it again.

[junebug]

WOOOOOOOOT