Some World Series Notes

Ron Guidry won Game 1 of the 1981 World Series against the Dodgers.

Here’s a good omen about this World Series and it’s Dodger related.  The Giants won games one and two with left handers Barry Zito and Madison Bumgarner chalking up wins.  The last time a team’s left handed starters won the first two games of the World Series was 1981, when the Yankees Ron Guidry and Tommy John beat the Dodgers to start things off at Yankee Stadium.  We all know what happened after that.

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The first two games have shown complete Giants dominance.  Winning by a combined score of 11-3, the National League representative has not only out-hit the Tigers, but their defense and pitching has been stellar.  Left fielder Gregor Blanco has flashed gold glove stuff out there.  Buster Posey is throwing out would be base stealers and the tag he applied on Fielder while avoiding a collision was brilliant defense.  For the many that are critical of home plate collisions, last night’s swipe tag by Posey was a classic example of how to effectively make plays at the plate without having to sacrifice your body and risk injury in the process.  It was a finesse move that may be the play of the series.

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Dan Iasoggna, the home plate umpire in Game 2 called the game of his life.

It should be noted that the officiating by this umpiring crew so far has been excellent.  On the few calls that seem to have been so close that they could have been called either way, an evaluation of extreme slow-motion replays show that the umpires got them right.  I have always been a critic of Dan Iasoggna and felt he really wasn’t that good of an umpire, but last night, in the biggest game of his officiating career, he got an A+.  Kudos to MLB for rewarding him and assigning him to the fall Classic.  I still don’t know how Cowboy Joe made it, but we’ll see how he does the remainder of this series.

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With Hurricane Sandy about to converge with a Nor-Eastern Cold Front in the coming days, it will be interesting to see how that weather will effect Detroit for the next three games (if necessary) of the World Series.  According to weather reports, the nasty weather will not arrive to the Detroit area until Monday, which most likely will result in a slushy mix of snow and rain that should arrive on Monday, October 29th.  MLB may be able to dodge this one.  You know they’ll want to get in game five, a delay of that could results in a long delay before Detroit weather is clear enough to play baseball.  Had the game been scheduled for New York, we would probably be looking at cancellations and a messy situation in attempting to get this Series completed timely.  Be preprared to see some games played in very cold conditions.

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I’m rooting for the Series to go the distance.  Our World Series tickets (owned by a group of season ticket holders) sold on Stub Hub for nearly 5 grand.  If this thing goes 7 games, my wife will be really happy as Christmas will be paid for.  Come on Tigers!