Good stuff to learn from Game 7

I hope girls are watching this Game 7 of the World Series. Only in the 3rd inning and there have been several great things to learn. Just now, the mistake of diving into first base instead of running through probably cost KC a baserunner. And the announcers are doing a good job of pointing out the nuances and why you do and don't do certain things.

 

He was also loafing, watching the ball. Didn't hustle until he figured out they were gunning for the DP.

 

And now Harold Reynolds explains that runners slow down when they dive into first base, which has been shown on that Sport Science program.

SF second baseman Panik recognizing who was running for KC at first base on this play caused him to glove flip the ball to second instead of getting the ball out with his hand. Great play and good analysis by Reynolds or Tom Verducci.

 

The importance of baserunning. Tagging up....KC scored the tying run in the 3rd bc of the extra base

 

Hunter Pence taking third just now on base hit to RF with no need to pick up the third base coach. Great baserunning, and once again, analysis. So much better analysis than College Softball World Series.

 

Hunter Pence impresses the heck out of me. He has an ugly swing and looks lopey when he runs, but boy does he get it done.

 

Maybe they over simplify the CWS analysis, thinking veiwers are newby's to the game. Id say 90% of veiwers are peaple who play,coach,or parents of players.They need to explain how our game is unique in itself but has some parts that are essentially the same.

 

Agree okiedad, they announce the CWS as if every person watching has never seen a softball game. That might be 1% of the audience.

 

More good stuff in Reynolds', Verducci's and Buck's analysis and criticism of Ned Yost's decision to sac bunt in the 5th. This has been my favorite group of announcers that I've ever watched.

 

Is anyone watching this guy from Chevrolet present Bumgarner the MVP? The most nervous man perhaps in history.

 

The thing that struck my mind was how Bumgardner pitching approach was so related to a rise ball pitcher , a rise baller with A) her best stuff that day and B ) a team offensively with no discipline to handle it . Time and Time again the Royals swung at pitches up in their eyes with hands below the plane of the ball . I couldn't believe it , inning after inning they swung at pitches out of the zone . But I've seen it a 1000 times in fastpitch , never so much and so obvious in MLB .

 

I think his control and the fact that most of those were just above or in the upper part of the strike zone. Once he figured out the ceiling of the strike zone, he manipulated it to his advantage. That is just a great performance on his part and a lack of discipline from the Royals. Once Bumgardner had the zone gauged, the Royals were stuck in a hole.

Bochy looks like a genius today. Think if Bumgardner had missed one of those high strikes out over the middle and would have given up a walk off homer to lose the series. Bochy would be crucified today by the national media. I got to give both of them props for having the stones to keep up their plan of attack.

 

great game. great analysis.

i thought i understood scorekeeping very well but i guess not because i would have given bumgarner the win, not the save. my understanding is that the winner must pitch past the 5th inning, as affeldt did not, but he still got the win. anyone else have a problem with this?

 

the starting pitcher has to get through 5 innings with the lead in order to get the win. even though bumgarner pitched the final 5 innings, affeldt was the pitcher of record when they took the lead.

 

I agree with CWS announcers dumbing everything down. It is exactly like the Little League World Series announcing except it should be more like the Baseball CWS broadcasts. Not teaching tballers how to run.

Also, the Chevy Bumgarner was presented is on the recall list, LOL. Epic fail!

 

Impact, are you referring to the girls little league World Series announcers? If you are then you are referring to Michelle Smith. She announces all games like it is a beginners clinic and we have all begged her for her wealth of knowledge. She announces in both arenas. Drives me absolutely nuts. It is always, this is how I would have done it. Hardly ever says anything nice about even a great play. Her ego knows no boundaries.

 

Rosebud, I am actually referring to the Womens CWS treating it like the LLWS beginners clinic. I can see doing it for the LLWS to an extent, but treat the college game like a college game.

 

Impact, I figured you were talking about the LL level. But I do watch the girl's LL world series and Michelle Smith talks the same way there. Although, granted, that is a better forum for her to do her basic clinic lectures. I mute my tv for the games that she does on the college world series. I don't think the women have been in the "game announcing" business long enough for the more knowledgeable ex-athletes to take over control of the announcing at these games. The trained announcers rely too much on their "color" commentators due to their own lack of softball knowledge and this is where Michelle will overpower her announcer and is allowed to do her rants and raves and "teaching" the softball world what she believes we don't know. Which in her mind is everything. It gives them all a bad name. We need to get trained ex-softballers on air and let them take over from these women who don't know the game. It would improve watching the games tremendously.

 

We met MS Smith and she is a sweet woman very nice -and I know she has a lot of knowledge of the game but listening to her... It sounds as if she had not seen a game in 20 years.
I would rather they have two announcers that don't know the game at all and just give the count and the score and maybe an inspiring background story once in a while.

There has to be some ex-collage players who took communication who could do the job...

 

Cobb, You are absolutely correct. Michelle is a nice person. And yes, she has a great deal of wealth about the game, but she also has a healthy ego and it comes across when she is at the mic. We do need trained people who are informative, keep us informed about what is happening in the game and tells us some interesting and maybe fun stories about the athletes. It's called, "doing your homework". That's exactly what I was trying to say in my post. The games are getting better and better and the announcing is still back in the 80's. We don't want to lose the people starting to get hooked on the game by poor announcing and tuning out because they think the games are so poorly played when it's all we have is just poor announcers. We need more professionalism in the box.