-What a performance last night by Hideki Matsui, the well deserved World Series MVP despite only getting 1 AB in each of the three of the games played in Philly. He matched a record for RBIs in a single game with 6 and batted .615 for the series, 3rd highest ever. Hideki has always had a flair for the dramatic since the day he arrived at Yankee Stadium. In his first game in pinstripes at the ballpark on April 8th of 2003, he hit a game winning grand slam as his way of saying hello. I believe last night was his final one in pinstripes, and if so he gave himself quite the send off. Sayonara Hideki, you’ve worn the pinstripes proudly and with grace and class since day 1.
It may also have been the final night for Pedro Martinez. Like most great professional athletes, the ending isn’t pretty. He clearly didn’t have it last night from the very beginning, but tried to find a way to get it done. On more regular rest (5 days) this looked very much like the Pedro Mets fans had become accustomed to seeing in recent years. I’m not sure which I’m going to miss more, the pitching performances or the press conferences. Both of which were larger than life. Adios Pedro, see you in Cooperstown.
See you next year, Andy
No word on whether Andy will have his name legally changed to ‘Andy Short-Rest’ but you couldn’t tell by last night’s broadcast. You might have heard the 12-29 stat when pitchers on short rest face pitchers on regular rest. WFAN’s Mike Francesa was citing it all day like it was the Rosetta Stone to understanding the playoffs. Just one problem with it, it’s meaningless.
SIs Tom Verducci said on a 1050 ESPN radio interview yesterday that he checked into it, and most of the 41 starts were elimination games. Games where a manager got desperate, and forced his best starter into a game to on short rest keep his team alive. So it’s a bad stat for at least 3 reasons:
-The teams you’re comparing aren’t equal, one team is already up big in the series and therefore the superior team
-These were panic moves. Girardi planned on using 3 starters all along and prepared his pitchers accordingly
-Elimination games aren’t comparable to other playoff games. Much more pressure and therefore much harder to win.
All that that stat tells you is one team was better than the other (which we already knew by the fact that they were up in the series) and that it’s tough to win elimination games. It tells you nothing about short rest vs long rest. Bad stat.
Joe gets his long-awaited pie from AJ Burnett. The much-maligned Yankee manager has now won his first World Series Title (and likely his 2nd MOY) in just his 3rd season of managing. Philly manager Charlie Manuel said something that caught my attention on the post game. He complimented the Yanks on being a great team, and Girardi for being a good manager. Then he shook his head a bit and said “They always seemed to be one step ahead of us” which may be the highest compliment any manager can give another. Now when anyone second guesses Joe Girardi about one of his moves, his use of scouting reports, charts, graphs and statistics, he can give them the finger. The ring finger, that is.
Related posts:
Yanks with 27 world series in 86 years (I know some teams go 86 wins between world series) average a world series win a little over every 3 years. That explains why the 9 year wait is considered a drought (and I read this morning that the 9 years was the 3rd longest drought since the yanks started winning in 1923). Are we spoiled? A little bit but thank God I’m a Yankees fan (thanks Dad and big brothers)!!!
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I guess now I can change to 28/10! I was signing off with 27/09 on every post (in 2008) on another blog. Great time to be a Yankee fan…now, maybe Joe G (and Cash) will get the congratulations and recognition they so rightly earned.
The TEAM won this WS, not any one individual. Even those like Cano, Tex, Brett and Swisher did their part in this Play-off/WS win…none of them hit that well but we won and they all helped. We always look at the stars of the games and forget about the guy that laid down a bunt, took the extra base or hit to right etc., it truly takes a team to win.
Not too much credit can be given to the pitching staff, there were a few bumps in the road but, they got the job done.
Again we were witness to the fact; good pitching stops good power hitters.
Congratulations to the World Champions…New York Yankees of 2009!
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Mariano was clearly the real MVP.
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The other Chris H Reply:
November 6th, 2009 at 12:43 am
I thought so, but it’s cool Matsui got it though! He has been around for a long time and finally got some recognition for his work!
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