The sad/crazy thing (depending on your point of view) is, those two kids are the respective teams CLOSERS. That’s just not the way to go, IMO.

I wasn’t a happy camper yesterday when Tony had to catch the last inning of the game because they PH for the backup catcher. Catching again after 25 innings the night before?

That’s why I said the other night, college coaches scare the crap out of both parents and MLB folks because they go overboard at tournament time.

doreen-

exactly. you have to practice executing. the yankees have so many good hitters they don’t often play aggressively with small ball stuff. when they do , they haven’t prepared well for it.
that’s what happened yesterday.

the between a rock and a hard place that the yankees are in shows with what happened with robertson. for him to learn to play well while scared he has to go in over his head. he won’t learn if he doesn’t. on the other hand, the yankees will lose some games as he experiences this.

some players won’t ever learn to play under pressure. some can learn if given the chance to fail enough. this is just very hard with the yankees.

at times the manager has to pull a player when he just can’t even breath. that’s what robertson looked like to me. better to pull him and give him another learning experience elsewhere.

when i was younger i used to put myself in positions when i was in over my head on purpose. it’s the only way to challenge yourself and learn to handle pressure situations. i’ve called games against the two person world champion beach vollyballball team. got beat 15-1.
bet money against tour players in golf. lost it. challenged a top ten national pro long drive guy to a driving contest. almost beat him , but lost the bet. i tricked him though by saying one swing. he choked on the first swing and only hit it 340. we tied and the second swing he hit it 360 and that was that.

in baseball, i bluffed my way onto a pro baseball team managed by clete boyer as a bullpen catcher after only catching 30 games in my life. i was terrible at first, but i had picked up the ability to fail by then without it making me quit.

graig nettles was on that team and watching him and others like him play up close i noticed that under pressure these guys had what i call gunslinger eyes. it only happened at key points in a game, but it was easy to see. you did not want to mess with them when they had that look.

gardner and robertson can learn how to do this and play without fear, but they’ll have to fail alot of times before they get it. that’s just how it is.

I have been in that situation you describe with the umpires, only with Football officials. What good do they actually think can come from it. I could not believe that ESPNU never cut to that game Saturday night. I was watching the bottom line all night trying to see the result. It sounds like a great weekend.

Heard the two long relievers, and I do mean long, threw 169 (Texas) and 129 (BC) pitches respectively. How crazy is that? Makes you wonder about the coaches a little.

The good news is the Pirates seem like they don’t mind doing business with the Yankees. So, who knows?

Off-Topic -

Looks like I’m not meant to see Bruce in the fall. Had the tickets. Had them. Clicked the continue button – and my browser just stopped. No movement whatsoever, as I helplessly watched the timer count down and then time out. So, I’m back on virtual line, hoping that there’s 4 tickets still to be had. Sometimes, things are just not meant to be. I suspect October 3rd would be a pretty chilly night, anyway.

I did. You know what all that means? Nothing! lol

You hear all kinds of stuff down the home stretch.

I expect more to heat up this week.

Here’s a link to the article at baseball prospectus:
http://www.baseballprospectus......cleid=8979

Wild, wild weekend. First off, they comeback from 3 down in the 9th on Friday to win 8-7. Unbelievable game.

You say, “What can top that”? A 25 inning, 7 hour game on Saturday night. To top it off, they lose a 4-3 heartbreaker yesterday on a blown call at first base that would have scored the tying run.

Then, as if what I described above wasn’t enough, the umpires decide not to leave the field after the game, park themselves in front of the BC dugout, and get into verbal confrontations with the players and coaches that almost escalated into something more serious.

BC was the home team Saturday night. That means, they had 17 chances to win the game in their final AB. SEVENTEEN! Amazing!

During the night, I was thinking about how some of the bloggers here would be posting if there was a blog up for that game! lol

We would have definitely lost some folks. It was some kind of event.

Plus, to do it in Austin was cool. Its funny, my firm does a lot of business with UT, particularly UT football but, I’ve never been Austin until this weekend.

Its a very cool and funky place. More like Berkeley and Boulder than Texas. It was a great ballpark and the people were really nice.

All in all, except for the results, a memorable weekend for the kids and their families.

Damn that Bucs organization