Final Baseball Thoughts for 2012

Some final 2012 baseball thoughts while applying some neetsfoot oil to the glove before putting it away for the winter.....

• Can you think of a World Series that will be less memorable as time goes on than the Giants just completed sweep of the Tigers?  Unless you are a Giants fan, I'll bet there will be a lot of people who won't even be able to name who played in it once the opening of Spring Training rolls around.
• This is to take nothing - NOTHING - away from the Giants for their victory.  It was thoroughly convincing and well earned.  Considering that during the course of the post-season, they faced SIX elimination games and won every one of them, it was pretty remarkable.
• The irony is that three Tigers' pitchers, Doug Fister, Anibal Sanchez, and Max Sherzer all pitched games that would have probably earned them victories, say, eight out of ten times, and that it was their rock, Justin Verlander, arguably the best pitcher in baseball, who let them down and got rocked in Game One.  That, and the anemic Tiger bats, pretty much set the tone for what was to follow.
• My lasting memories of this post-season will be (1) the game Barry Zito pitched in Game 5 of the NLCS, (2) watching the Washington Nationals snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by blowing a 6-0 lead and giving up four runs in the ninth in Game Five with the Cardinals to lose the NLDS, (3) the ALCS game where the Yankees tied the Tigers in the bottom of the ninth, lost Derek Jeter to a broken ankle, then saw the Tigers win in the twelfth, and (4) that ridiculous interpretation of the infield fly rule in the NL Wild Card game..
• Too bad that the excitement of the Division and League Championship seasons couldn't have carried forward into the World Series.  Bud Selig and the other MLB Bigdomes had to be disappointed in that.
• I think the Orioles beat the Phillies in four games in the 1983 Series.  That was pretty unmemorable.
• I have been on this soapbox before, but allow me once again to say that I think it would be wonderful if Major League Baseball would adopt "uniform police" much like the NFL does.  I hate the pants-down-to-the-shoetops look, but what might be even be worse is seeing players on teams with old fashioned knickers and high socks while other players go with the long pants.  Even then, players screw it up.  Hunter Pence and Barry Zito wear the high solid black socks, while teammate Sergio wears the high black socks with three horizontal stripes on them.  Shouldn't uniforms be uniform?  And why doesn't someone tell Hunter Pence to button the top three buttons on his shirt?  And why are helmets allowed to be defaced with pine tar?  And are there two sloppier looking ballplayers in any sport than Pablo Sandoval and Prince Fielder?
• Wow, I think I need to take an aspirin now.
• And speaking of irony, how about that on the day the Pirates decline the option on Rod Barajas, while still considering resigning him as a free agent for 2013, it is also announced that Matt Weiters wins a Gold Glove?
• As I put the neetsfoot oil away, I ask - what exactly is a "neet"?