Lots of baseball talk today with Craig Calcaterra from NBC’s Hardball Talk. We cover a lot, so here’s a quick recap of most of it.
We talk about the Josh Hamilton Ginger Ale bath and wonder if the Rangers will remove all the alcohol should they beat the Yankees. It was a great gesture to use soda for a recovering addict, but why not remove the alcohol altogether? Has the beer and champagne become THAT synonymous with winning in baseball…and if so, what does that say about the sport?
Of course, it all comes down to sponsorships as Budweiser is all over those locker room celebrations. Calcaterra points out that once they get a Ginger Ale company to throw in some cash, maybe they’ll lose the alcohol.
That all said, will Texas see another celebration anyway? Can they beat the Yankees in a seven-game series? We try to break down the possibility, which seems to hinge on CC Sabathia. Even though the Yankees SAY AJ Burnett is starting game four, does that mean they’ll actually do it if down 3-0 or even 2-1?
We throw out a theory that has Burnett slated to be the game four starter unless the Yankees are down in the series 2-1. Then, we suspect Girardi could start Sabathia on short rest to get the series even at 2-2, THEN pitch Burnett in game five at home, giving Phil Hughes and Andy Pettitte full rest for games six and seven. If the Yankees are winning the series, just stick with Burnett in game four. I suppose we’ll see, as managers have a tendency to panic in the playoffs.
One manager who never seems to panic with his pitchers — even though he’s had many reasons to with his bullpen in the last two years — is Charlie Manuel. We spin the NL to discuss the NLCS, spending an awful lot of time on the pitching match-up in Game 1 between Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum.
Oh, and thanks Braves, for nothing. You can’t win a damn game at home to force Lincecum to pitch game five? We talk a lot about that, as Calcaterra is a huge Braves fan, which leads to more bitching about the pats on the back people have been giving Brooks Conrad so as not to “Bucknerize” him. In that, we slam Bobby Cox a little too.
We do more breaking down of the NL series before picking who we think is going to win. Yes, Calcaterra hedges by saying he thinks it will be Yankees and Phillies but part of him is rooting for Texas and San Francisco. That part of him is lying. Nobody wants to see that series. It will be the lowest rated World Series ever. Fox may ask TBS to show a Texas-San Fran series for them. You can hate the Yankees, and Phillies, but a World Series without both of those teams will be devastating.
Yes, I’m a Phillies fan.
Thanks for listening.