WasWatching.com

Let's just hope that, some time in the future, say, around the year 2188, that these computer-generated games don't replace the "real" games that we get to watch now. Wouldn't that be sad?

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No that wouldn't be sad. It would make life easier for everyone because we would all be robots and we would remove the human element that we all seem to have a big problem with. Kinda like removing #6 and replacing him with a robot that will make all the "right" moves, then after the Yankees lose a game then we'll finally concede that the other team was better.

Wouldn't that just make it fun, Steve? Isn't that what you want? I feel like we'll soon be caught in the Twilight Zone, then once we've crossed over to that parallel universe we'll all be wishing to come back to the way it was.

We can beat a dead horse all we want and 2nd guess every move in every game, we can read all the SABR books, we can do all sorts of analysis on what warrants the right move for every situation, but the one thing we can't remove is the fact that we are watching real people and to err, simply said, is human.

"...to err, simply said, is human."

Okay, I can accept that. But Jeff Weaver with the World Series on the line? JEFF WEAVER??

Sorry for the double post, but...

"I think America's the greatest country in the world, and unfortunately we have people who are half-and-half on the war and on medical issues."

...what does that even mean?

brock - Hadn't Weaver pitched one inning already? A-Gone shanked one down the line, game over...in the 9th and 11th the Yanks had the winning run on 3rd and couldn't bring it in. Had the Yanks scored in the top of the 12th and Mo comes in to save the day, then Torre is brilliant for trusting Weaver. Let's rewind to 2000. Do you remember when David Cone was brought in to pitch Mike Piazza in the world series? Cone was awful that year, but yet Torre still had faith in him in a key spot.

You see we are quick to praise someone when they have the balls to make a move that a lot people would question, but when a manager fails with that move then we are quick to criticize.

It's hard for Torre to change who he is, when he's has had a track record of doing the same thing over and over again. The only thing is that he no longer has the magic touch.

Look at the Patriots, they are the football version of the Yankees 96 - 2000 teams. I don't know how much football you watch, but look at their last two seasons in the playoffs. The ball isn't bouncing their way any longer. It happens to all the great teams. You think Franco Harris immaculate reception was a planned play? The game was over and they somehow managed to pull the game out of their arse in the last minute of the game.

Sometimes it's a little luck that we should pray for and not another manager. If we had a little luck prior to the Weaver inning, then chances are we never would have been in that situation. Weaver didn't make a bad pitch, he had A-Gon off-balance, and he shanked it down the line. Do you remember Posada's double from the 2003 ALCS? He hit that between Garciaparra and Todd Walker, he was fooled on the pitch but with a little luck it happened to land perfectly between the two players. It was a f'ing pop-up for christ sake. The Yankees went on to win the game, but luck wasn't on their side when they went to the series. Sometimes there is no other explanation.

The human element is 5% of the game, the rest is just talent and luck.

Hilarious. I also read that Seth McClung of the D-Rays got in also. How did that happen?

Love the site man. Keep up the great writing.

Thanks mybaseb1 - I try to!

Garcia, you make some solid points. Cone was pretty much cooked by '00. As for Weaver, he hadn't pitched in nearly a month and had been demoted to the 'pen toward the end of the regular season. One major difference between the two, though, is that Weaver was one giant ball of negative energy. He had lost all confidence in himself, and his team in him. Thus, expecting two straight strong innings, with the season on the line, from that walking disaster was foolhardy, to say the least.

But neither decision was a good one. I'm not nitpicking or Monday morning QBing, either - Torre just has a hell of a time managing a bullpen, even when he had one of the best ones in the game at his disposal. The Cone decision proved more fruitful, due to...luck? The Weaver one...not so much.