Barry vs. The Monkey

Jason Michael Barker

Sometimes I don't mind being wrong. Take my NLCS prediction, for example. "Despite my desire to see Barry Bonds take his show one more round, I'll go with the well-rounded Cardinals in six." In other words, I was rooting for the Giants even though I didn't think they'd pull it off.

Boy was I wrong! But hey, what's new? If you've been following this column since the post-season began, you no doubt know that I'm now one-for-six when it comes to predicting series this year. The good news is that I'm not losing any sleep over it, and neither should you. If you were foolish enough to make any sort of wager based on what I had to say, then you've got much bigger problems than I can help you with.

In any event, while I'm certainly not shocked that the Giants won, I am surprised at how quickly they handled the Cardinals. Then again, when you pick a Tony LaRussa-led club you have to expect to get burned now and again. In the fifth game alone, LaRussa made a number of questionable decisions (or non-decisions), the most baffling of which was his handling of starter Matt Morris.

Letting him hit in the ninth seemed like a bad move all along, given that Morris was noticeably starting to tire the inning before. I understand the decision to bench Tino Martinez against lefty starter Kirk Rueter, but why not let him hit against righty Tim Worrell in the ninth? LaRussa brought 12 pitchers to the NLCS, yet he seemed determined to stick with Morris rather than use any of them.

Alternately, he could have inserted Martinez as a defensive sub earlier in the game, moving Albert Pujols to the outfield and thereby saving J.D. Drew as his best hitter off the bench. Instead, Drew entered the game in the seventh for Eduardo Perez and only batted once, against lefty Scott Eyre, while Martinez never got off the pine. Of course, this whole thing could have been avoided by leaving Scott Rolen off the post-season roster entirely when there was very little chance he'd be ready to play even at the very end of the series.

Other things I jotted down while watching the game:

Do the Giants have the best home uniforms in baseball? There's something about that slightly off-white color they wear that just looks good against the green grass.

FOX, and particularly Tim McCarver, just couldn't let Miguel Cairo's non-interference of Benito Santiago as he rounded third go. They showed replay after replay, and McCarver voiced his opinion at least a dozen times. For a minute there I thought he and Steve Palermo were going to come to blows when Palermo visited the broadcast booth. Personally, I think the whole thing was overblown because it looked to me like Santiago went out of his way to bump Cairo, hoping to be granted home in the process.

On the other hand, McCarver got a chuckle from me when he called Morris' curveball "Sir Charles" instead of the usual "Uncle Charlie." The curveball that hangs over the plate is simply called "Chuckie," he continued. But as good as Morris' curve was most of the night, it was a bad one -- the one that hit Jeff Kent when it didn't curve -- that set up Bonds' sacrifice fly to tie the game in the eighth.

Are you as sick of the Mastercard Most Memorable Moments as I am? "Because I'm just a mindless sheep who can't form his own opinions, please tell me which moments are the most memorable rather than forcing me to choose on my own." Not to mention, some of those so-called "moments" aren't really moments at all, but entire seasons (Ichiro's rookie year, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chasing Roger Maris' homer record). But I digress.

At this point you're probably looking for a World Series prediction, but if that's the case you're going to be disappointed. I will say this, however -- with both Anaheim and San Francisco winning their series early, the two teams will be fully rested and ready to roll on Saturday, and I think as a fan that's all you can ask for. I also think it will be a close and hotly-contested series, which assuming you don't have a strong rooting interest on either side, is again all you should ask for as a fan. I'd like nothing better than to see this thing go seven exciting one-run games.

I'll be rooting for the Giants, though, because I'd like to see Barry Bonds finally win a World Series to go along with all his other awards and accomplishments. What he has done the last two seasons is simply incredible, and winning it all would be a nice way to cap all of that off. Well, that and it might serve to silence some of the people who still criticize him for not performing in the clutch.

I can't stand that blasted monkey, either.

Go Giants.

about the author

Jason Michael Barker may not like the rally monkey, but he's got a soft spot in his heart for the comeback camel. Ask what in the world he's talking about when you write jmb@strikethree.com.

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