Hello Scorpions fans.
I believe in my previous post (prior to yesterday's first pitch) you may have picked up on just how distraught I am with the club's performance of late (and I know I cannot possibly be alone in my misery). Specifically, the past five road games in four days, in which we have gone 0-5 and the boys have been outscored 44-15. This is not the sort of stat that impresses! When are things going to turn around?
Please pardon me as I hop down from my soapbox momentarily.
I'd like it to be known right here and right now that I am a Scorpions fan, win or lose. It's easy for those of us in the stands to know (or to think we know) what ails the club, and perhaps offer some tips (all of which are probably misguided) on how to correct the situation(s).
It's easy for those of us not on the field to offer advice and to pick apart and evaluate and critique every decision Marshall, Hunt and Whisler make. But at the end of the day it's Marshall, Hunt and Whisler on the field and the decisions they make, while we may not agree with them, we have to accept. We may not like it, but we aren't getting paid to be in the pressure-cooker, putting our decision-making necks on the line. Until we've walked a mile in their shoes...yada, yada, yada.
I have wondered over the past week, since instituting this blog, if I've been a bit too harsh on the boys. Baseball managers, coaches and players must have thick skins to be barraged daily with the opinions of everyone who, really, doesn't have a clue. If we did have a clue we wouldn't be blogging and reading blogs and commenting on blogs, we'd be on the field, wouldn't we?
So I'd just like to say that even though the club is stumbling a bit now I can appreciate the jobs the coaches and players do to entertain us (although lately, to be honest, there's been more cursing on my part than entertaining on their part). Yuma is not a large city with tremendous entertainment options, and the fact that we have a ball team here pleases me no end. Sure, it's nice to get to San Diego and Phoenix to catch an occasional game, or hit the river and the lake, or drops a few dollars in Vegas, but really - if you consider baseball life, like I do, then there's nothing like rooting on, and supporting, the hometown club.
There. I've freshened my drink, come back to my senses, and I think I've returned to being my usual ornery, opinionated self.
So, now I'll get on my soapbox and say (again) that pitching is the key to baseball success. Can we, boys and girls, all agree that p-i-t-c-h-i-n-g is what determines the W-L numbers? Of this I have absolutely no doubt. I can only hope that Marshall is burning up the phone lines, making arrangements to get some pitchers in here who can get the job done. That the bullpen lacks depth is obvious when position players are being recruited to throw, and pitchers become position players.
Last night's 15-0 fiasco was the worst yet. With each run scored I contributed a bit to the Moscow State Wine Warehouse No. 1's (aka Stolichnaya) Relief Fund, in the spirit of giving, of course (pun intended). Either the team wins one game - puh-leeze boys, just one game on the road before this trip from hell concludes! - or I'm going to have to soon take advantage of my employer's Employee Assistance Program.
I'm signing off for the evening. Nothing like sitting by the pool on a cool (!) evening, fresh drink within easy reach, eyes on Burns' Baseball - Murderers' Row* - and ears on the AM dial following the local nines.
*Not the greatest team of all time.
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5 comments:
I too struggle with critiquing a team too much when I am not the one on the field. However I think you do a good job of evaluating them against a baseball standard.
It like my Silver Sox. They average over 2 errors a game and have given up close to three unearned runs per game. I am listening as I write this to their game. So far they are down by one and it is due to 2 errors committed so far--Victor Hall losing a ball in the sun and Chuck Sidlinger having a ball get past him at short. These are forgivable errors except that something like this happens every night. The last home game I went to saw Mike Done drop a pop fly and Cody Nowlin drop two balls thrown to him at first.
Baseball is simple to understand and hard to master. Pitching (and I would piggyback defense) win games. We know that and we can express that in a way that doesn't denegrate the competence of the manager or the players. And that is our right.
I don't think we can argue that almost 1/4 of the way through the season that they are still working out the kinks. Now is put up or shut up time. These are professionals and we have a right to expect a certain level of competence...we'd expect no less from a lawyer, doctor, or whatever. We as a paying customer can comment when we aren't getting the performance the standards of the profession set.
And at the end of the day, if we didn't care in the first place, we wouldn't say anything. There isn't enough time to be a hater and invest this much time in blogs and listening to and attending games
Ouch another loss. Well at least it was only 4 runs given up so that is an improvement. At least you guys lead the league in attendance.
The Sox won again tonight. Nothing like a series with St. George to help get a team out of a funk. The Sox have given up 19 runs and had 5 errors in two games--but they scored 32 so the offense hid those mistakes.
When you play St. George maybe Yuma will have similar results...bad news is that the first meeting isn't until July 2nd.
One thing we're getting good at is getting good and drunk...Ahhh to numb the pain. So close we were last night in Chico...*sob*
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