Thanks for the reports - greatly appreciated!  :-)

I loved the reports on both the disputed HR ball and on LeBron switching hats.

Regarding the disputed HR ball, the TBS announcers mentioning, "Who needs replay when we have Froemming's eagle-eye vision," as he supposedly seen it all the way.  Amazing that he can't figure out a strike from about a foot in front of him, yet he could see that the ball was a HR from about 320 or so feet away?  Forgive me if I'm unconvinced - of course, it would have helped if TBS had had more than one camera angle - the angle they showed didn't show anything conclusive.

As for LeBron - amazing how quickly he can ditch the Yankees' cap.  TBS said that he's supposedly a big Derek Jeter fan, which makes me think he hasn't been a Yankee fan his whole life, since Jeter didn't come up to the Majors until LeBron was around 11-12 YO.  

If LeBron was wanting publicity, he's getting it all right, but likely is losing some of his own fans in the process; like I said before, I think it's in "poor taste" to openly root for a rival of the team in the same city you play in, especially in the postseason.  You can remain neutral or even publicly give support to your "home" team, even if you really want the other team to win.  It really would have been smarter on his part to do that in my opinion, as his image will be and has been negatively affected to some extent.

I loved the one fan's sign directed at LeBron:

"Hey LeBron
Witness the Indians
World Series '07."

Three words for LeBron - "Deal with it."  :-)

Just my 2 cents.    

Is this a subtle reference to one of the great ballads of all time, "North Dakota", by Lyle Lovett?

The first line in the song says, "The boys from North Dakota drink whiskey for their fun."

 Lol-aughable.

Agreed on the strike zone - Froemming's strike zone was "annoying" to say the least; he wasn't consistent, expanding it later on in the game, but earlier on, it was the size of a thimble.

When Sabathia, who didn't walk 40 guys all season in over 200 IP and only walked 6 guys in all of September, walked 6 tonight in 5 IP, you know something is likely up with the strike zone.  Sure, he was excited, and he did look like he was overthrowing a bit, especially in the first inning or two, but several of those pitches toward that outside corner would have been called strikes by several other umpires.  For whatever reason, Froemming didn't.  

Wang also struggled with his command, having walked only 59 in 199.1 IP, yet he walked 4 tonight in less than 5 IP, so I think it's reasonable to conclude that Froemming's strike zone DID play a part in their lack of command, along with the fact the adrenaline was up for both pitchers and the fact that both, I believe, had extra rest.

So far in this postseason, many of the umpires' strike zones have been questionable in my opinion - it seems they've either been very tight like Froemming's or they've been too lenient, calling pitches that are several inches off of the corner.  

Personally, I'm not that fond of TBS' PitchTrax - I take it the inner box is the strike zone and the outer box is the area inbetween the 2 batters' boxes?  If so, I don't know how PitchTrax charts some of those pitches - some appear to be well outside of the strike zone when they look to be borderline or so on PitchTrax.  Plus, the TBS announcers seem to not have it on their screens or ignore it when they talk about pitches being strikes or not, as they'll say a pitch is outside, yet PitchTrax charts it as being on the inner-box line, which would signal a strike.

I also agree that CC's poise was very important tonight, and something he likely wouldn't have shown the last time he faced the Yankees (2004) or earlier.  Despite his mediocre line, his pitching tonight was a main key to us winning Game 1 - if he can't finish the 5th inning and/or he gives up the lead right there, who knows what happens after that.  Granted, Wang may still have given up those runs anyway, but it certainly was advantageous for us to stay out in front of them and not allow them to tie it up or take the lead.  That just gave us extra momentum against Wang in the bottom half, which we fortunately took advantage of.  Sabathia's ability to get through the 1st inning with just the disputed HR was another testament to CC's poise, and fortunately, the Indians came back right away against Wang in the bottom half to score 3 - those are great signs for this team to go far in October if they can keep doing little things like that (minimize damage and score right away in response to their scoring.)

Hopefully, we won't have to deal with Bruce Froemming's strike zone again this postseason and we can keep the winning going!  :-)

CC said in the postgame interview that he was trying to take something off of the fastball and sit where he had all year but that he was too "excited" to do so. He said his command kept him from locating the offspeed stuff so he was forced to rely on the fastball, which he was having a hard time keeping down in a range he was comfortable with.

Not only did Sabathia, who entered 1-7 with a 7.13 ERA in his career against New York, have to deal with New York's awesome lineup, but plate umpire Bruce Froemming's strike zone was paper thin for the left-hander, who battled through 114 pitches, allowing three runs and four hits in five innings.

How many times in your life have you seen an AP article mention the umpires strikezone?!?

:)

I always feel pressure. What I don't have is fear. -- El Duque

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