There's a lot of wisdom to be gleaned from that gaseous warthog: you can't live in your past.
With a baseball season being 162 games long every year, I just have trouble with being a fan who tries and pinpointing all the failures of the season on one particular game, and one particular play within that particular game. There are so many opportunities that are either missed and inexplicably capitalized upon that define the season equally. As mentioned in the anger/venting thread yesterday, we're more prone to remember the failures than the successes, but do we want to be a fanbase that can't get past poor events that were out of our control anyhow (and by that I mean that neither team can control a poor call), or one that can talk about the great moments of their season? I'd like to think we're the latter. We can definitely have our reviled characters, but we don't live in moments in the past, we don't define our existence by a timeline of failures and misfortunes. Granted, it's a short history thus far, and a young season yet, but let's not allow the misfortune of one game to breed overbearing negativity, especially when there is so much room for redemption
And as another Disney oft-overlooked but personal-favorite-of-mine, "Meet the Robinsons" tells us, we just need to "Keep Moving Forward".
As much as it contradicts the prior paragraph, what drives me up the wall about that 9th inning isn't the blown double play or any other number of things. It was the reversed Balk call. As Troy Renck reports, the umpiring on the balk was somewhat of a circus.
Nelson mistakenly flagged [Franklin] Morales for a balk at first base, admitting he reacted before the left-hander finished his pick move. Then, second-base umpire Damien Bell called a balk, saying Morales didn't pause with his hands, allowing Martin Prado to move up to second base. Manager Jim Tracy went nuclear, racing onto the field. Third-base umpire Jeff Kellogg had to get between Tracy and Bell, whom the Rockies manager appeared ready to bull-rush.
I don't know what other proof we need to say that the umpires are out to get Franklin Morales. Yes, I'm making that claim, based on selective memory and frustration. How has Andy Pettitte gotten away with balking for this long, and yet Morales can't throw over to 1B without getting a balk call? It has gotten to the point where the umpire was balking Morales before he'd even finished doing what he was doing. Just WAITING to call that balk, love calling the balk on Morales.
I'd argue that half of LHP in baseball with a good pickoff move are balking half the time, and not getting called anywhere near as consistently as Morales. Or maybe they're being called just as consistently, but in the opposite direction. I'd love to know what it is about lefty pickoff moves that have umpires so ready to award a ball and extra bag, but not righties. Maybe it's being called just as often on righties, but because there are that many more righties than lefties in MLB, we just don't notice it.
Spilled milk, I know, but this milk looks to continue being spilled. If I were to make any complaints to the league office, the Glaus DP might be a footnote. The unfair treatment of Franklin Morales would be the body of that letter.
To provide a little link dump, here are the headlines this morning:
Gonazles' shot unmistakable, even on the radio || Troy Renck, Denver Post
Renck drops off some odds and ends from the Bravos game.
Rockies' Jimenez grasps reality of no-hit feat || Troy Renck, Denver Post
Renck also drops off the interesting story of Ubaldo Jimenez' post-no-hitter festivities. I found it interesting that the post-game meal was shared by Latin players, and not more of a mixed bag. Don't read anything into that, I just figured more of the pitching staff would be along.
Past that, there's not much more going on. Enjoy the day, Rowbots!